Christopher Bates, BiographyPorter County biographical sketches . . . .
Transcribed biography of Christopher Bates
CHRISTOPHER BATES.
A worthy history of Porter County, Indiana could not be given without mentioning the name of Christopher Bates, who, for over fifty years, has been a prominent resident of this county. He is a native of the Green Mountain State, where he first saw the light of day on the 6th of October, 1829, and both his parents, Hale and Augusta (Webber) Bates, were natives of that state also. When the subject of this sketch was about seven years of age, he was taken by his parents to Kalamazoo, Michigan, and at the age of fourteen years was brought to Porter County, Indiana, at which time it was in a very primitive condition, inhabited mostly by Indians and various wild animals. Almost immediately thereafter Hale Bates became the purchaser of about one thousand and four hundred acres of excellent land, a considerable portion of which he cleared and improved previous to his death, which occurred in the house in which the subject of this sketch is now living, in October, 1854. His widow survived him until June, 1866, when she was also called to that "bourne whence no traveler returns, " having become the mother of six children, two of whom survive: Christopher, and Alice, wife of Jerome Rathbone, who resides in Boone Township, in the vicinity of the old Bates homestead. Three children died in infancy, arid Rhoda, the youngest of the family, became the wife of Prof. Banta of the Valparaiso schools. Notwithstanding the fact that the country was in an unsettled and unbroken condition in both Michigan and Indiana at the time his parents located in these states, Christopher was fortunate enough to receive a common school education. On the 18th of April, 1850, he led to the altar Miss Hannah Adams, a daughter of S. Adams of Boone township, who was an old and highly respected resident of this section, and who has been dead for some twenty years. To Mr. and Mrs. Bates six children have been given, only three of whom survive: James, a resident of Idaho; Hale, who married the daughter of David Holburt and resides on the Holburt homestead; and Mary who married Benjamin Nichols and resides in Hebron, Indiana. Rhoda, Hale and Hale (named for his brother) are deceased. He has always affiliated with the Democrat party but his father was an ardent Whig.
Source: Goodspeed Brothers. 1894. Pictorial and Biographical Record of La Porte, Porter, Lake and Starke Counties, Indiana. Chicago, Illinois: Goodspeed Brothers. 569 p.
Page(s) in Source: 174-175
This biography has been transcribed exactly as it was originally published in the source. Please note that we do not provide photocopies or digital scans of biographies appearing on this website.
Biography transcribed by Steven R. Shook