MITCHELL, DAVID LAWSON (1860-1909)

MITCHELL, DAVID LAWSON, principal of the Chatham Grammar School, 1893-97; b. Lincoln, N.B., 27 May 1860, s/o John Hiram Mitchell and Mary Ann Lipsett; d. Lincoln, 11 Mar 1909.

David L. Mitchell was educated at the Fredericton Collegiate School, and as a mature student, at the University of New Brunswick (BA 1891), where he won the Douglas Gold Medal and was editor of The University Monthly. He had less than one year of teaching experience when he was appointed principal of the Chatham Grammar School in the fall of 1893.

While Mitchell was head of the grammar school, the three discrete school districts in Chatham were united into one. This took effect in July 1895, and after the incorporation of the town of Chatham the following year, all publicly-conducted schools were brought under the control of a new town school board. These events marked the end of many years of wasteful competition among the different Chatham districts and cleared the way for the coming of larger, better-staffed, and more efficient schools.

In the fall of 1895 Mitchell addressed the Teachers' Institute on "Patriotism" and was elected to the presidency of the institute for 1895-96. He continued as principal until December 1896, when Philip Cox was drafted as both principal of the grammar school and superintendent of the Chatham school system. After his departure Mitchell worked for B. Mooney & Sons Ltd, a Saint John construction firm. He was principal of the grammar school at Gagetown between 1898 and 1903. Later he was engaged in the insurance business, but he returned to the field of education in 1907 as principal of the grammar school at Bathurst. In September 1908 he was appointed school inspector for York, Sunbury, and Queens counties. When he died six months later, at age forty-eight, his mother, two brothers, and a sister were named as his survivors.