John Hazelton Cotteral

Who was John Hazelton Cotteral?

John Hazelton Cotteral was a United States federal judge. Cotteral was an appellate court judge on two Circuit Courts of Appeals, the Eighth and the Tenth.

Cotteral was born in Middletown, Indiana and attended the University of Michigan. He read law in 1885. He began his career in private practice in Garden City, Kansas from 1885 to 1889. In 1889 he moved on to Guthrie, Oklahoma, where he was also in private practice.

Cotteral was first appointed a federal judge on the United States District Court for the Western District of Oklahoma. Cotteral received a recess appointment from Theodore Roosevelt on November 11, 1907, to a new seat. He was formally nominated on December 3, 1907 and confirmed by the United States Senate on January 13, 1908.

President Calvin Coolidge elevated Cotteral to the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit. Formally nominated to that position on May 19, 1928, he was confirmed by the United States Senate on May 23, 1928. He took the seat formerly held by Walter Henry Sanborn.

Cotteral was reassigned to the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit on March 28, 1929. Cotteral remained a judge until his death on April 22, 1933.