Joseph Mitchell

Joseph A. S. Mitchell (December 21, 1837 – December 12, 1890) was an American lawyer, politician, soldier, and judge who served as a justice of the Indiana Supreme Court from January 6, 1885 to December 12, 1890. Mitchell also served in the American Civil War as a captain in the 2nd Indiana Cavalry Regiment. Biography Mitchell was born in 1837 near Mercersburg, Pennsylvania to Andrew Mitchell (of Scottish descent) and Sarah Mitchell (née Lecron, of French origin). He grew up on the family farm near Mercersburg until he was seventeen, when he moved to Blandinsville, Illinois in 1854 to become a student at Blandinsville Academy. After a short education in Blandinsville, Mitchell became a school teacher. Returning to Pennsylvania in 1856 at age nineteen, he began to study law at the office of Riley & Sharp in Chambersburg. In 1859, Mitchell was admitted to the Indiana bar. After travelling for several months in the South, Mitchell moved to his lifelong home of Goshen, Indiana in 1860. He opened up a private law practice, but following the outbreak of the Civil War, he left Goshen to serve in the Union Army.