John M. Slaton (1866-1955) was born to Nancy Jane Martin and William Franklin Slaton near Greenville, Georgia. He attended Sam Bailey Institute in Griffin, Georgia. He came to Atlanta, Georgia, in 1874 and graduated from Boys High School in 1880 at the age of thirteen. In 1886, he earned his master of arts degree from the University of Georgia. Slaton married Sarah Frances Grant in 1898. Sarah Frances Grant (1870-1945) was born to William Daniel and Sallie Fannie (Reid) Grant near West Point, Troup County, Georgia. John and Sarah Slaton had no children. Slaton read law under John Thomas Glenn in Atlanta and was admitted to the state bar in 1887. In 1894, he began working at the firm Glenn, Slaton, and Phillips. John Slaton was elected president of the Young Men's Democratic League in 1891. He served in the Georgia House of Representatives (1896-1909), representing Fulton County, and was Speaker of the House (1905-1909). He represented the thirty-fifth district in the Georgia State Senate (1909-1913), serving as President of the Senate in 1909. He was appointed acting governor when Hoke Smith was elected to the U. S. Senate in 1911. John M. Slaton was elected Georgia's sixtieth governor (1913-1915), winning all but ten counties. The murder of Mary Phagan and the subsequent trial of of Leo Frank ocurred while he was in office. Governor Slaton commuted Frank's sentence to life imprisonment, but Leo Frank was lynched by a mob in Marietta, Georgia, in 1915. Slaton lost his bid for re-election and returned to his law career. He was a member of the General Council of the American Bar Association and served as president of the Georgia Bar Association (1928-1929).