Eugene Mitchell

Eugene Muse Mitchell (October 13, 1866 – June 17, 1944) was an American lawyer, politician, and historian. He served as the President of the Atlanta Board of Education from 1911 to 1912, during which time he eliminated the use of corporal punishment in city schools. He owned a law firm in Atlanta, and was a co-founder of the Atlanta Historical Society. He was married to the prominent Catholic activist and suffragist Maybelle Stephens Mitchell and was the father of Margaret Mitchell, who wrote the novel Gone With the Wind.

Family background and early life Mitchell was from a prominent Georgia family descended from Thomas Mitchell, a colonial land surveyor originally from Aberdeenshire in Scotland who settled in Wilkes County in 1777 and served in the American Revolutionary War. His great-grandfather, William Mitchell, was born in Edgefield County, South Carolina and owned a farm near Flat Rock. After the war, he made a large fortune supplying lumber for the rebuilding of Atlanta, which had been largely destroyed during the Battle of Atlanta, becoming one of the richest men in Atlanta and serving as the city's mayor. The wedding was reported in The Atlanta Constitution. Although raised Protestant, and married to a devout Catholic, Mitchell was not fond of organized religion and, despite agreeing to baptize and raise his children in the Catholic faith, he had disdain for the Catholic Church.

In 1893, he opened a law office with his brother, Gordon Forrest Mitchell. A year later, as his law practice prospered, he moved the family into a large, twelve-room, brick Victorian mansion at 179 Jackson Street. As the rioting continued, with an angry mob of 10,000 white people assembling in the streets beating and killing black people, false rumors began spreading that black men were assaulting white women and would potentially burn down Jackson Hill. At his daughter Margaret's suggestion, Mitchell stood guard of his home with a sword, as he did not own a gun. No attack occurred on the Mitchell home.

In 1909, Mitchell purchased a large lot at 1149 on Peachtree Street, where he built a two-story Colonial Revival mansion with terraces. Their former home on Jackson Street was destroyed in the Great Atlanta Fire of 1917.

Mitchell served as president of the Atlanta Board of Education from 1911 to 1912, during which he abolished corporal punishment in public schools. He was a co-founder of the Atlanta Historical Society.

He died on June 17, 1944, in Atlanta and is buried in Oakland Cemetery.