Ionia County MI Archives Obituaries.....Bates, William S. 1905
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Marilyn Ransom mlnransom@chartermi.net June 30, 2010, 8:14 pm

The Ionia Standard, Friday, March 3, 1905
William S. Bates, one of the successful and widely known farmers of this 
section, died at his home two miles south-east of city, at 5:30 Friday 
evening, after an illness of a year or more.  Philo Bates, father of William 
came to Ionia county in 1835 and located land in Ionia, on the Bellevue road.  
He settled on this land in the fall of 1836, with his wife, a daughter of 
Deacon William Babcock, a pioneer prominent in those days.  Philo Bates built 
the first frame house in the township.  He died Dec. 20, 1838.

William S. Bates was born October 4, 1834 in Hopewell township, Ontario 
county, N.Y., and was thus two years old when brought with the family to Ionia 
county, and four years old when his father died.  He made his home for a time 
with his grandfather, and then with some of the uncles, and later with a 
sister, Mrs. H. B. Lathrop, in Jackson, Mich., where he was afforded the then 
unusual opportunity of attending the Union school.  He had before that, been a 
pupil during the summer sessions, of the first school established in Ionia 
township, the first teacher being Miss Harriet Bates, afterwards Mrs. H. H. 
Smith.  This school was first held in an upstairs room in the Bates 
homestead.  This building is still standing, on the Fred Cutler farm.

William started out in the struggle for himself at the age of 17, hiring out 
to work on a farm in Jackson county at $10 per month.  He continued to work in 
this way on different farms in Jackson, Cass and Monroe counties, until he 
reached the age of 21, when he returned to Ionia county and took possession of 
his portion of the estate left by his father.  This farm, on section 31 in 
Ionia township, was in a wild state, but through his unremitting labors was 
brought in a high state of cultivation, with a large and handsome residence, 
and large and well built barns, betokening the thrift that comes from 
intelligent labor and good business management.

Wm. S. Bates was married May 18, 1864, to Miss Eliza A. Goodenow.  Three 
children were born to this union, Frances, wife of Charles Putney, of 
Missoula, Montana; Harry P., of Ionia township; and Harriot G., living at 
home.  Mr. Bates has been a member and earnest supporter of the Presbyterian 
church since 1856, and is one of the men in that church who have passed away 
in the last few months whose loss will be seriously felt.

Mr. Bates had the strongly marked characteristics that belonged to the sturdy 
pioneers who successfully grappled with the difficulties and grimly endured 
the hardships and inconveniences of those primitive days.  He had naturally 
little patience with weakness of any kind—moral, physical, or mental; but he 
did not lack, after all, the element of social sympathy that compassionates 
sorrow and distress, and social companionship was dear to him.  No home in 
this vicinity, perhaps, has been the scene of more numerous social gatherings, 
nor where the true spirit of hospitality was more cheering than the Bates’ 
home.

There are a very large number of friends, more or less connected by ties of 
consanguinity.  Deacon Wm. Babcock had 15 children of whom Wm. S. Bates’ 
mother was one, and his stepmother another.  His father was three time 
married, and had seven children.  All these were connected with other families 
of pioneers, making a connection far reaching.  In this large circle as well 
as in the larger circle of social friends. Mr. Bates was well known, and 
highly esteemed for his sterling qualities of character.  Decedent has been in 
poor health for a year or more, and the recent death of his brother Philo 
seemed to be a blow from which he never rallied.

Funeral at family residence, at 2:30 p.m. Monday.  Interment, Balcom cemetery.



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