Born: 1902
Died: 1978
Married: Evelyn Slavin
Children:
Maurice Mitchell was a World War I veteran. He worked as a chef at the McVeety, Cedar Post and Will Rogers Hospital and had been the manager of the Altamont Milk Bar. He also owned and operated the White House Restaurant in Saranac Lake.
Adirondack Daily Enterprise, September 5, 1968
Maurice Mitchell Recalls His Experiences Aboard U.S. Gunboat on Yangtze
(Editor's Note: The following account, based on the recollections of Maurice Mitchell, of Saranac Lake, is printed in conjunction with the showing of the film The Sand Pebbles, at the Sara-Placid Drive-In. The film echoes Mr. Mitchell's experiences aboard the sister ship Panay to a remarkable degree.)
By RIP ALLEN
In about the year 1920, far up the Yangtze River above Hankow where the waters begin to narrow and lose depth, the U.S.S. Panay, an American gunboat, was on routine patrol. It was reported that four American missionaries had disappeared from the village of Ischang, a lonely hamlet about the size of Bloomingdale, N. Y.
The skipper, Lt. Hillman, sent two of the gunboat's Chinese workers ashore to lind out what had happened. When they returned, they reported that the missionaries had been taken by river pirates, seeking ransom in American Gold. The informers were able to guide the Panay through waters cluttered with junks to one which they indicated as being the one where the missionaries were held prisoner. The Panay slowed at a distance and loosed a volley of machine gun fire across the junk's bow.
Nineteen men then formed a landing party and, each bearing a rifle, crossed the low tide mud flats to the junk. They demanded release of the prisoners and brought them to safety without a shot having been fired.
Back on the Panay, the Lieutenant told the men that they were to remain below as long as the missionaries were aboard. The missionaries had the run of the boat deck.
This happened because the missionaries hated American sailors, considered them immoral, given to loose living, and generally just one more problem to go with the many problems China was facing at that time.
"They hated us." Maurice Mitchell recalls, "except when they needed us."
He notes this as one example of the ambiguous situation the United States and other nations have faced in the Far East..., and perhaps are still facing today.
Mr. Mitchell, now manager of the Altamont Dairy Store in Saranac Lake, served for three years on the Yangtze Patrol, an arm of the regular Navy. Most of that time, he worked as Coxswain aboard the Panay, sister ship of the U.S.S. Villalobos and the by now renowned U.S.S. San Pablo. called the Sand Pebbles. The three ships were identical in appearance and duties. The Sand Pebbles, recently made famous made famous in the book by Richard McKenna and Robert Wise's film from the book, actually had nothing on the Panay in history. Many will have forgotten the name of the American gunboat sunk suddenly and inexplieably by the Japanese in an attack on Shanghai in 1933, but the incident lives on as one of the never fully explained occurrences of history.
This was the Panay, attacked Mr. Mitchell believes, so that Americans would not see what occurred during the Japanese invasion of Shanghai. Something like seven of its 37 crew members lost their lives, and the Japanese, calling the attack a mistake, helped ferry the survivors to safety.
In the twenties, the Yangtze Patrol consisted of about a dozen such boats, characterized by their flat hulls and the cigar shape of their single stacks. All had been captured by Admiral Dewey from the Spanish in Manila Bay, and so dated at least from 1898. The Principle armament was four-pounder cannon guns that discharged a cartridge-like steel bar about a foot long.
They were sent from Manila to the Yangtze to patrol for the purpose of safe-guarding American oil interests and American missionaries in China and also to watch what was developing politically in that huge country. At the time, China was divided under at least four leaders of whom Sun Yat Sen was one and Chiang Kai-shek was another. Everywhere there was unrest... [the remainder, mostly illegible, is here]
Adirondack Daily Enterprise, October 9, 1978
Maurice E. Mitchell
SARANAC LAKE — Maurice E. Mitchell, 75, of 20 Church St., a resident here for 55 years, died Friday evening at the General Hospital.
Mr. Mitchell was born in Malone, the son of George and Rose (Poissant) Mitchell.
He was married to the late Evelyn Slavin, who died in 1976.
Mr. Mitchell had been a chef at the McVeety, Cedar Post and Will Rogers Hospital and had been the manager of the Altamont Milk Bar. He also owned and operated the White House Restaurant in Saranac Lake.
He was a member of the Benevelant and Protective Order of the Elks Lodge 1508, the third and fourth degree Knights of Columbus Council 599 and Bishop Gabriels General Assembly.
Survivors include five sisters, Mrs. Eva Vivlamore and Mrs. Helen LaHart, both of Saranac Lake; Mrs. Cecile Bute and Mrs. Irma Keating, both of Borne; Mrs. Eileen Fitzpatrick of Tarrytown; and many nieces and nephews.
An Elks service was held Sunday evening followed by a combined third and fourth degree K of C Bible vigil service.
A Mass of Christian Burial was offered this morning at St. Bernard's Church, with the Rev. Thomas Driscoll officiating.
Interment was in St. John's Cemetery in Paul Smiths.