Our 20th Lucas County Prosecutor, Charles E. Sumner, was born in Lambertville, Michigan on the eve of the Civil War, in 1860, where he lived throughout his childhood and early adulthood. He attended the Michigan public schools as well as the "Michigan Agricultural College" (possibly Michigan State University?). He received a post-graduate degree from the School of Political Science of the "Michigan University."

In 1882, he moved to Washington, D.C. to assume a clerkship in the U.S. War Department. At night, he studied law and graduated from the Columbian Law School in 1886. After receiving his law degree, Sumner, who had married, returned to Toledo, Ohio, where he was admitted to the Bar in 1887. In 1890, he was appointed Assistant Lucas County Prosecutor, a position which he held until 1897, when he was elected Chief prosecutor of Lucas County. Re-elected to that position, Sumner continued in that position until 1902. He served as President of the Ohio Prosecuting Attorneys Association.