News, Citizen Profile, Henry "Digger" Ates, LaSalle Parish, La.




**********************************************
Copyright.  All rights reserved.
http://usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm
http://usgwarchives.net/la/lafiles.htm
**********************************************
 

Submitted by: Craig Franklin of The Jena Times, Jena, LaSalle Parish, La.

Henry "Digger" Ates - Citizen Profile  

Wednesday, March 21, 2001, page 1B

A Times-Signal Feature "Citizen Profile" A Very Special Salute

At 97, this Urania man follows a daily routine

He's the oldest citizen in the town of Urania and is probably the most active
97 year-old man in the United States. His strict daily schedule, active
lifestyle, and faith in God is what he attributes to his longevity, not even
to mention is wonderful sense of humor.

Henry E. "Digger" Ates was born on September 1, 1903. Today he is the pride of
Urania, being its oldest resident and one who can claim rights to literally
building the town. Few people know that he was actually born in Grant Parish,
at what was known as Old Dry Prong.

Mr. Ates explains that when the railroad came through, the people built a new
town by the tracks. Thus, the part they left became known as Old Dry Prong,
with the new town simply called Dry Prong.

His father, Frank Ates was a carpenter, but actually did a little bit of
everything, including working on the railroad. His mother was Emma Brymer
Ates, who proved later to be one of the hardest working women to ever live.

Mr. Ates started school in Grant Parish, but his educational experience in a
classroom didn't last very long. 

In a special publication prepared by Junior Powers for Urania's Centennial
Celebration three years ago, Powers writes:

"When asked how much schooling he had, he (Mr. Ates) smiled and replied,
'Three days. The first day the teacher was absent. The second day it rained.
The third day I went home at dinner and never went back.'"  

As you can tell, Mr. Ates is a very witty person. He is known around Urania as
a hard working man, with an extremely good sense of humor.

When he was 10 years-old in 1913, Mr. Ates' father left his mother and their
six children, of which Mr. Ates was the oldest.

"It was 17 years later before I ever saw him again," Mr. Ates said. "I don't
know why he left us, but when he did, I had to go to work."

During that time, there was no such thing as welfare or government subsidies.
If the family was going to have food to eat, someone had to work to make money
to buy it.

Being the oldest, Mr. Ates went straight to work, cutting wood, picking cotton
and working the fields. 


He and his mother would hire out with a neighbor who owned cotton fields. They
would work from daylight until dark every day, with his mother making 75 cents
per day and him making 25 cents per day.

In 1918, the family moved to Utility, west of Jonesville, where they made a
crop sharecropping. They'd planned on making another crop in 1919,
but heavy rains preventing any crops from being made that year. So, they
packed up their belongings and moved to Trout where Mr. Ates got a job with
the Trout Lumber Company. 

By this time he was 16 years-old, so he started full-time at the mill. His job
was to tie the lumber up with heavy string after they'd been cut which got
them ready to be shipped. 

After a month and a half of hard work, Mr. Ates decided it was time to find
another job. Tying string was a grueling job, which left his hands sore and
bloody. It had gotten to the point that he couldn't even close his hands to
hold anything. When he went to the foreman to ask for some time off to get his
hands healed, the foreman declined to let him off. So, in Mr. Ates words, "I
just took the time off and never went back."

Later in 1919, Mr. Ates and his family moved to Urania, where he immediately
went to work with the Urania Lumber Company.

He started out working with a logging crew, which was cutting and hauling logs
out of the woods which were used to build the railroad. In those days, oxen
would pull the logs to the railroad to be loaded on the rail cars to be pulled
to the mill. 

While he wanted to live inside Urania, at the time there were not enough
houses for everyone. So, the family stayed at the logging camp in the woods
until sometime later they moved to Urania.

He started out making 22 ½ cents per hour with the logging crew. But by the
next year, 1920, he went to work in the carpenter crew which meant he received
a raise, making 24 ½ cents per hour.

"I helped build this town working in that carpenter crew," Mr. Ates said
proudly. "All together I guess we built around 300 houses by the time I quite
in 1968... and most of those were built without power tools."

"Along with building houses, the crew also dug cisterns. Cisterns were
commonly used in the old days to catch rain water to drink by families. It
usually was a large hole in the ground. At the time, water was scarce in
Urania, and Mr. Hardtner had put a limit on the amount of water people could
have."

We dug cisterns all over this place for people," Mr. Ates said. "That's how I
got my nickname - Digger."

Also while working with the carpenter gang, Mr. Ates would leave a lasting
impression in each house that he built. In every house that he had a hand in
building, he would put his initials and the date (ex. HEA 2,3,1936) on a board
in the wall. Boards with his initials can be found in most all the older homes
in Urania today.

"Life was different in Urania back during those days," Mr. Ates said. "Quincy
Hardtner, Henry's brother, was the main man. He ran Urania while Henry lived
in Alexandria. And he (Quincy) ran a tight town."

Mr. Ates said that with most everyone in town being employed by the Urania
Lumber Company in some way, Mr. Quincy had complete control of what went on in
the town.

Being a Christian, Mr. Quincy was tough on those who didn't abide by the
rules.

"If people drank whiskey he moved them out," Mr. Ates said. "If they
yelled and stuff, he moved them out. It was a real good town then. There
wasn't hardly any problems and it was a good place to raise a family."

In February of 1929, Mr. Ates married Eva Williams. The next month they moved
into a house in Urania where they lived together until she passed away in
1989. Today, he still resides in that same house by himself. 

"The front part of this house is actually over 100 years old, it was one of
the first houses built in Urania, but we moved into it in March of 1929, "Mr.
Ares said proudly. " When my wife died, I told my children not to touch a
thing inside. Everything is exactly how she decorated - I wanted it kept that
way. This is a mansion to me."

Mr. Ates loved his wife of 60 years dearly. Most folks in Urania may not be
away that Mr. Ates was married once before Mrs. Eva, when he was 17 at the
logging camp.

"She (his first wife) died of pneumonia," Mr. Ates said. "We hadn't been
married long, but we did have one child before she died. Then I married Eva.
I've got five children, six really, one was born dead."

He stopped working as a carpenter for the Urania Lumber Company in 1968, when
Georgia Pacific bought out the historic lumber company.

"I stopped building houses but I didn't stop working," he said. "I worked all
around town, doing different things, carpentry, other things. Then in 1980 (at
age 75) I took a job cleaning up a shop. I stayed there until 1990.

"Mr. Ates has a memory unmatched. He can remember vivid details about events
in his past with crisp clarity. He recalls specifically life when he was
growing up, and how different the world was back during that era.

"When I was growing up, we had to walk about 8 miles to go to church and when
we got there it was crammed full of people," he said. "Now-a- days, nobody's
at church. But you go to a ball game and people are everywhere. I really don't
think the Lord is going to let this world last much longer the
way it is. It's messed up . . . messed up big."

In 1925, when he was 22, Mr. Ates was saved and baptized at Urania Baptist
Church. Well, actually, he was saved at the church but had to be baptized at
Castor Creek, the nearest baptizing hole around.

"We had to walk about 3 miles to Castor Creek for our baptizing," he said.
"There wasn't but about a half-dozen cars in Urania at the time. I've been a
member of Urania Baptist Church ever since."

Because Mr. Ates hearing is bad due to working a sander unprotected for many
years, he doesn't attend many worship services at the church any more.

"I get so frustrated because I can't hear a word anyone is saying," he said.
"But I still serve Him and still try to tell everyone I can about Him and try
to get them to get in church."

In fact, Mr. Ates routinely makes his rounds throughout Urania, telling folks
about Jesus and trying to get them to come to church.

"I try to tell people all the time about the Lord and how they need to get in
church," he said. 

He also leaves his house early every Sunday morning and drives down to the
church, and leaves his weekly tithe at the church. This shows just how
committed he really is.

"The Lord has blessed me and every day I talk with Him - all day long," he
said. "Men my age are rolling around (in wheelchairs) or in crutches and I'm
still making crops. I've made 71 crops (gardens) in this old place, maybe I'll
make 72 this year."

In his entire life, Mr. Ates has only been in the hospital three times. He
says the Lord has blessed him with good health and the ability to continue
living a life independently.

"As long as I can get up and cook my breakfast and make a crop I think I'm
doing pretty good," he said.

Mr. Ates has a very strict routine that he lives out every day. His day begins
at 6:30 a.m., when he wakes up. He said he used to wake up earlier, but now
its around 6:30 a.m.

"After I wake up, I walk to the door, open it, and tell the Lord good
morning," he said. "Then I kneel and pray, then go to the kitchen and cook my
breakfast. After breakfast, I usually do whatever needs to be done around the
house or in the yard until 10 a.m., and that's when I take my nap. Then I get
up and take the rest of the day off."

Mr. Ates said when he relaxes, he enjoys sitting on the porch and watching the
cars go by. No matter what he's doing, he's always praying.

"I pray all day long," he said. "I talk to the Lord all day - always have."

At 4:30 p.m., Mr. Ates eats supper, and then at 6:30 p.m. he watches the only
television show he cares to watch - Wheel of Fortune. 

Around 7:30 p.m., he kneels and prays again, then walks to the door, tells the
Lord good night, and then goes to bed. The next morning, the routine starts
all over again.

The only problem that Mr. Ates really has is his hearing. It really bothers
him that he can't attend church because of it, due to his love for his Savior.

"I had to sand all those floors and it was loud," he said. "We didn't know
anything about protection back then, so it knocked out all my hearing. I've
got more than $2,000 worth of hearing aides in my head - it's worth more than
my head is."

Mr. Ates said he really doesn't know why the Lord has left him on the earth
for 97 years, other than the fact that He wants him to continue trying to get
others into church.

Mr. Ates has out-lived all of his friends and many people that he loved
dearly. Just recently two of his best friends passed away, but as he puts it,
"The Lord must have something for me to do, that's why I'm here.


"One of the other interesting things about Mr. Ates is his "Garage Diary." The
old garage located beside his house is literally a living record of events in
Mr. Ates' life and in America. The garage has become a sort of history book in
itself, and any time residents need to know a date or information, they stop
by and read the walls.

All along the outside and inside of his garage, he has written down important
events and the dates in which they occurred. They are written in Mr. Ates'
handwriting, and are wrote exactly as the words sound. He candidly admits that
what little bit of education he has he learned from his wife.

Also hanging on the walls are various antique items, such as 100 year-old axe
heads and other antique tools.


The garage houses his 1992 Isuzu pick-up truck, which by the way, he still
drives all over town. In the nearly ten years his owned the truck, he has
accumulated just about 19,000 miles on the truck.

His house itself is like a living museum, causing one to step back in time to
another generation. Although he does have an air conditioner, he never turns
it on. The only time it gets turned on is when one of his children come to
visit and they insist on the cooler air.

He still loves to hunt and fish, and continues to raise a garden each year, as
he loves the fresh garden vegetables. He also mows and keeps up his own yard,
along with doing his own grocery shopping, washing, and his own banking. The
only medication he takes in a blood pressure pill once a day and some
vitamins.

He is one of the most independent men in LaSalle Parish, doesn't ask any thing
from anyone, and he doesn't owe anyone in the parish. And he has certainly
never been one to want to be the center of attention.

His family says that he wants to live to be 100, and with his active
lifestyle, good health, and faith in his Lord, he will most likely make it and
then some.

"The Lord has really blessed me," he said. "I got some pretty good kids and
they come and visit regularly. And most importantly, I've got the Lord. As
long as I've got Him, and I can get up every morning and still do the things I
can do, then I feel blessed."

This week, we salute the pride of Urania, Henry "Digger" Ates, and
thank him for taking time to share with us his rich history. He is truly an
example for all to
follow.   

Caption under photo:
Henry "Digger" Ates still uses this antique wood burning heater to warm his
house during the winter. At 97, he still cuts his own fire wood for the
heater, as well as mowing his own yard, making a garden each year, and many
other things. Although his home has an air conditioner, Mr. Ates never uses
it. The only time it gets turned on during the summer is when his children
come to visit. (See story.)

Caption under photo:
URANIA LUMBER COMPANY CARPENTER GANG
Urania's Oldest Resident, Henry "Digger" Ates, is shown above ( at far right)
in this photo taken years ago of the Urania Lumber Company's Carpenter Crew.
He is credited with helping to build over 300 homes in Urania from 1919-1968.
In each home he built, Mr. Ates would leave his initials and the date the home
was built on one of the boards in the wall inside the home (ex. HEA 2,3,1936).
Another Urania historical landmark is Mr. Ates' garage, or better known as the
"Garage Diary". Throughout the years, he has handwritten on the garage walls
important events and the dates in which they occurred. (See story.)