 He and Horace Greeley of the "New York Herald Tribune" founded the Fresh Air Fund, which for many years operated the Life Fresh Air camp for city kids on the site of today's Branchville School in Ridgefield, Connecticut, the town in which Mitchell also lived.In 1875, Ames was hired by his uncle, Oliver Ames, Jr., to design the Unity Church of North Easton.Mitchell penned a half dozen novels, the most famous of which, "Amos Judd" (1895), was made into the 1922 silent film, "The Young Rajah", starring Rudolph Valentino.