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John Elbert Sater, son of John Jones and Nancy (Larsson) Sater, was born near New Haven, Hamilton County, Ohio on January 16, 1854. He was orphaned at the age of ten and was reared by his uncle, Joseph Sater, a prominent farmer of Hamilton County.1 Sater attended public schools until age thirteen when he entered a select school near his home. While preparing himself for college, he commenced teaching at the age of sixteen. Teaching in the spring and working on the farm during the summer, he accumulated enough money to attend college.2
In the fall of 1871, Sater entered Miami University at Oxford, Ohio. At the end of his sophomore year, he transferred to Marietta College where he graduated in 1875 with honors, receiving his Bachelor of Arts degree. He continued at Marietta and received a Master of Arts degree in 1878. At the age of twenty-one, Sater became superintendent of the schools at Wauseon, Ohio, while also serving as Fulton County School Examiner. While he filled those positions, he was offered the principalship of the high schools at both Toledo and Cleveland, both of which he declined.3
In the spring of 1881, Sater resigned his superintendency to accept an appointment as chief clerk in the office of the State Commissioner of Common Schools at Columbus. While engaged with the duties of this clerkship, he commenced the study of law under the direction of J. H. Collins of Columbus, Ohio, one of the most prominent members of the Ohio Bar and counsel for the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad.4
After being admitted to the Ohio bar on June 3, 1884, he joined with L. F. Sater to establish the Columbus firm of Sater & Sater. Later A. T. Seymour joined the firm and the name was changed to Sater, Seymour & Sater. The firm specialized in real property, corporate banking and insurance law. For ten years prior to 1907, the firm was counsel in almost every import case before the courts of Franklin County, Ohio.5
Sater's interest in public education continued after he started practicing law. From 1885 to 1890, Sater served on the Columbus Board of Education, and he was elected president of the board in 1888-1889. He was instrumental in establishing the North End High School which became the first branch high school in Columbus. He was elected a member of the Charter Convention which drafted a charter law for Columbus. He was also a member of the Board of Trustees of the Public Library for three terms and was its president in 1907. Sater was offered the nomination for State Senator from the Columbus district in 1903, when such a nomination was equivalent to an election, but he declined.6
Under the Judicial Act of 1907,7 a new judgeship was created for the Southern District of Ohio, and on March 18, 1907, President Theodore Roosevelt appointed Sater to the United States District Court to fill the second judgeship. Sater took his place on the bench March 25. But since no action was taken on the appointment that session, he was re-appointed on December 8, 1908, and confirmed by the Senate on March 1, 1909.8 Judge Sater served as a special judge on many federal benches including courts in Toledo, Grand Rapids, Nashville, Philadelphia, Cleveland, Memphis, and frequently on the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. He served as chairman of a commission to review Federal Judicial Procedure. His report was submitted to the Senate and later enacted into law. This work was highly commended by Chief Justice William Howard Taft.9
After serving seventeen years on the bench and reaching retirement age, Judge Sater resigned on November 18, 1924, to return to private practice. After stepping down from the bench, he was elected president of the Columbus Chamber of Commerce in 1925 and then served as a member of the Ohio Constitutional Convention which was called to repeal the Eighteenth Amendment in 1933. Judge Sater was a 33rd degree Mason, a member of the K. O. T. M., Knights of Pythias, the Columbus Country Club and the Queen City Club of Cincinnati.10 In 1910, Marietta College conferred an honorary LL.D. to Judge Sater and Miami University honored him with another in 1911.
Judge Sater was twice married. His first wife was the Elizabeth Jones and they had two children: Kenneth L. and Marve (Sater) Scott. On October 9, 1889, he married Mary S. Lyon and there was one child by this marriage. Judge Sater died at the age of 83 on July 18, 1937, in Columbus, Ohio.11 |
