For a period of forty-two years Mr. Bates has been a resident of this county. He was born in Lawrence County, N. Y., February 19, 1834, and came with his parents to Northern Illinois in 1847. He was reared to man’s estate in this county, of which he has since been a continuous resident and uniformly engaged in farming pursuits. He is the owner of a good homestead, embracing 113 acres of fertile land, on section 22, where he has erected good buildings and brought the soil to a thorough state of cultivation. In thus redeeming a portion of the wild prairie, he has contributed thus much to the growth and development of his adopted county.

The Bates family flourished in the Green Mountain State during the first half of the present century, and Caleb, the father of our subject was born in Rutland County, where he married Miss Phebe Holbrook, a native of the same. Removing thenceshortly (sic) afterward, they settled in St. Lawrence County, N. Y., whence they emigrated to Northern Illinois in 1847, locating on a tract of wild land in Rush Township. The father followed agriculture the remainder of his days, passing away in 1869. The mother died in 1883. Their family consisted of ten children, five sons and five daughters.

The subject of this sketch, on reaching man’s estate, was married at Nora, Ill., May 27, 1866, to Miss Mary M., daughter of the late William and Rebecca (Bunker) Lee. The mother died in Indiana, April 14, 1861. Mr. Lee, in 1864, came to this county and first settled in Rush Township. After a few years he sold out, and thereafter made his home with his children, dying in Adel, Iowa, Sept. 14, 1877. They were the parents of nine children, of whom Mrs. Bates was the fifth in order of birth. Her native place was near South Bend, St. Joseph Co., Ind., and her birth occurred March 21, 1844.

Prior to his marriage, during the progress of the late war, Mr. Bates enlisted, Aug. 22, 1862, in Company K, 96th Illinois Infantry, and served until the close of the war, being promoted to Corporal. He took part in the battles of Kenesaw Mountain, Franklin and Nashville, Tenn., besides numerous other engagements and skirmishes. He was stricken down with illness and confined in the hospital at Quincy for several months. When the war was over he returned to this county and resumed farming. He has been quite prominent in local affairs, serving as Township Supervisor six years, also as Collector, Assessor and Justice of the Peace, of which latter office he has been the incumbent for the last eight years.

Mr. and Mrs. Bates, in religious matters, are actively identified with the Seventh Day Adventists, and Mr. Bates has officiated as Superintendent of the Sunday-school for about three years. He cast his first Presidential vote for Gen. John C. Fremont at the organization of the Republican party in 1856, and has since been a stanch supporter of its principals.

Contributed by Carol Parrish Portrait and Biographical Album of Jo Daviess and Carroll Counties, Illinois (1889), p. 696.