Satterwhite Junius Wall (1886-1951)

Satter J. Wall as he appeared in the 1950 South Carolina state manual.

  

  Following on the heels of the May 31 profile on South Carolina state representative Tonquin E. LaGrone, we continue our stay in South Carolina to highlight one Satterwhite Junius Wall, another oddly named "Palmetto State" legislator. After locating Wall's name on a roster of past South Carolina representatives a day or two ago I immediately began a search for more information on his life, as well as a portrait of him. While I managed to find a meager amount of biographical material on White and his stature in Marion County, finding a photograph of the man proved to be more difficult than I had hoped! After checking through my usual newspaper haunts and Google Books, my search came up empty, but a day or two later was rewarded by discovering the picture Mr. White shown above, discovered in the 1951 South Carolina state legislative manual.

  Satterwhite "Satter" Junius Wall was born in Marion County on March 29, 1886, being one of eight children born to  Hugh Giles (1840-1909)  and Sarah Jane Watson Wall (1847-1929). The reasoning behind his being bestowed the name "Satterwhite Junius" is unknown at this time and as a youth enrolled at the University of South Carolina. He was a member of the Euphradian Society and graduated from the school's teaching department in the class of 1907. He would continue study at Peabody University and Columbia University, and in the early 1910s began what would become a lifelong connection and interest in the educational affairs of his home county of Marion.

   In 1915 the then twenty-nine-year-old Satter J. Wall was elected as Marion County's Superintendent of Education, and also held the post of President of the Marion County Education Association, beginning a twenty-two-year tenure in those offices. Mentioned as being a "bachelor farmer", Wall didn't enter political life until he was past sixty, being elected as one of Marion County's representatives to the South Carolina State Assembly in November 1948. 

  Satterwhite J. Wall would serve in the legislative session of 1949-1950, and would win a second term in the house in the November 1950 election. His second term was cut short by his death from a heart attack on August 21, 1951, at age 65, and was succeeded as representative by Earle Rogers Ellerbe, who won a special election to replace Wall in January 1952. Following his passing Wall was interred in an unusually placed mausoleum located on the Wall Road in Marion County. Satter J. Wall is the only "occupant" of this mausoleum, which is inscribed with a caption denoting his extensive service to the county, his time as a state representative,  and that "His Chief Concern Was the Education of Youth."