John Wendell Mitchell

John Wendell Mitchell (April 1, 1882 – October 18, 1951) was a Canadian writer, best known for his work The Yellow Briar: A Story of the Irish on the Canadian Countryside.

Early life Mitchell was born in 1882, in Mono Township, Ontario, in what is now part of Town of Mono. The area is occasionally figuratively referred to as the Caledon Hills, a reference to nearby Caledon Township, Ontario, now Caledon, Ontario. He lived on his grandfather's farm in Mono until 1894 when he moved with his mother to Toronto. He studied at Victoria College, before enrolling in Osgoode Hall Law School in 1902. He was called to the bar in 1907. He went on to practice law in Toronto for 28 years. It was very popular, it was reprinted four times in 1934, eventually selling 10,000 copies at the height of the Great Depression.

Fraud and disbarment In 1935, Mitchell confessed to police that he had fallen into debt and used his clients' money to rescue himself, in the amount of $20,000. When his financial situation became public, after his death, a fund was set up to cover the cost of his grave marker. His last book, The Settlement Of York County was published posthumously.