Antoine Sauter
Antoine "Anthony" Sauter was a machinist, once foreman of various shops in the Roanoke Machine Works for the Norfolk and Western Railroad.Early years
Sauter was born on May 4, 1848, in Mulhouse in Alsace, France, to French parents. There he attended public and private schools, and worked for the Koechlin machine shops from 1863 to 1867. On April 21, 1869, he married Catherine Senn in Mulhouse.USA
Following the Franco-Prussian War, the Sauters left for America, arriving in Jersey City on April 1, 1872. He worked in Jersey City for the Erie Railways Company until its shops were consumed by fire, and then he moved to Susquehanna, Pennsylvania to work for the same company. He arrived in Roanoke on July 4, 1882, staying for 13 years the foreman of its machine shops under Frederick J. Kimball. Sauter moved to Lambert's Point where he was dubbed a "master mechanic" and to Norfolk. Sauter spent a short time with his son as foreman in Portsmouth, Ohio before he was taken ill. He died of endocarditis in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania at the German Hospital on April 16, 1905.
