Joseph Walter Mitchell is perhaps the most forgotten and unappreciated historian of Portsmouth and Scioto County, whose research and data collection are one of the reasons we know so much about the city and county’s nineteenth century history. Joe, as he was known by friends, was a native of Zanesville, Ohio. At the age of four, in 1862, he relocated to Portsmouth with his parents and attended the city's public schools. Although he went on to graduate from the Cincinnati College of Law in 1878, Mitchell "never practiced law extensively.” Instead, he became a journalist, newspaper editor, and publisher of city directories. He worked as a traveling correspondent for the Cincinnati Enquirer, and a reporter for the Circleville Advertiser, and the West Union New Era, before his career with the Tribune and Blade in Portsmouth.

In Mitchell's obituary, published on 21 October 1931, the Times noted that he "was a conspicuous figure in local journalistic circles as he wielded a trenchant pen. .... After laying aside his pen he became an abstracter and historian and probably no man in Scioto County knew as much of the county as Mr. Mitchell. .... When the late Capt. N. W. Evans published a History of Scioto County it was Mr. Mitchell, who compiled most of the data. His services along this line were invaluable. He worked for many months on the book and when it was published, he often remarked that his life's work was done." In short, a strong argument can be made that Joe Mitchell's account of the origins of the Boneyfiddle name, which appeared in the Portsmouth Times in November 1912 ought to carry great authority.