Clatsop County OR Archives Biographies.....Bates, E. G. April 23, 1892 - 
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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Ila Wakley iwakley@msn.com January 12, 2011, 4:30 pm

Source: History of the Columbia River Valley From The Dalles to the Sea, Vol. III, Published 1928, Pages 642 - 645
Author: The S. J. Clarke Publishing Company

     E. G. BATES, a prominent young citizen of Clatsop county who has ably 
represented his district in the state legislature, enjoys an enviable 
reputation as a dairyman and poultry raiser of Gearhart and as the proprietor 
of Ocean Home Farm, which comprises two hundred and fifty-six acres and 
extends to the Pacific Ocean on the west. He was born at Williamsport, 
Pennsylvania, April 23, 1892, his parents being E. M. and Annie Bates, who 
have spent their entire lives in the Keystone state. The father, who was 
engaged in the grocery trade during his active business career, is now retired 
and during the winter months resides at Redlands, California, where he owns a 
ten-acre orange grove that is managed and occupied by his youngest son, 
Russell. His family numbers four sons and two daughters, namely: Myron, who is 
with the General Electric Company of Pittsfield, Massachusetts; Robert, county 
clerk of Lycoming county, Pennsylvania; E. G.; Mrs. Isabel Anthony, a resident 
of Wilmington, Delaware; Elizabeth, at home; and Russell, who is in the 
government postal service and resides at Redlands, California.

      E. G. Bates supplemented his grammar school education by a high school 
course at Williamsport, Pennsylvania, where he was graduated. He was a youth 
of nineteen when in 1911 he came to the Beaver state and enrolled as a student 
in the School of Forestry of the Oregon Agricultural College, from which he 
was graduated with the Bachelor of Science degree in 1915. The following year 
he was married to Verna M. Tagg, a classmate, who was born on Clatsop Plains, 
near Astoria, Oregon, her parents being William and Sarah Tagg, natives of 
England and now residents of Gearhart, Oregon. Mr. and Mrs. Tagg emigrated to 
the United States in the middle '80s and purchased a farm on Clatsop Plains 
which they subsequently sold, buying and locating on a farm at Gearhart. This 
Mr. Tagg cultivated until 1916, when he sold the place to Mr. Bates, and since 
that time he has lived retired at Gearhart. He has three daughters: Mrs. 
Lystra Horrie; Mrs. Verna M. Bates; and Elvia, the wife of W. O. King, a high 
school teacher of Boardman, Oregon. The three daughters were all graduated 
from the Oregon Agricultural College in 1915.

     After purchasing the farm of his father-in-law in 1916, Mr. Bates began 
erecting modern dairy and poultry houses thereon. His main poultry building is 
three hundred and fifty-two feet long by twenty-seven feet wide. The poultry 
plant is one of the finest in the state from the standpoint of convenience and 
the arrangement of the different divisions of the business. At the south end 
of the main building are the laying pens with a capacity of fifteen hundred 
layers, in the center are the feed rooms and garage and at the north end are 
the fattening pens and brooder house. The hot-water brooder has a capacity of 
five thousand chicks and the fattening pens a capacity of two thousand fryers. 
Mr. Bates raises two varieties of chickens — White Rocks and Black Jersey 
Giants — and has the largest flock of White Rocks in Oregon. The White Rock 
pullets average seven pounds at seven months and the roosters nine pounds at 
the same age. The Jersey Giants are also large, heavy fowl and, like the White 
Rocks, are good layers. Mr. Bates operates his incubators throughout the year. 
He dresses the broilers and sells them direct to the consumer. Moreover, he 
operates a large dairy and retails milk in Seaside, while the demand for his 
eggs, which he ships in large quantities to California, exceeds the supply. 
His model, sanitary dairy barn is equipped with an electric milking machine 
and with the latest and best bottle washing and sterilizing machinery. His 
stock farm, named Ocean Home, is two hundred and fifty-six acres in extent and 
has the Pacific ocean for its western boundary. One hundred acres are under 
cultivation for hay and root crops. Mr. Bates has one of the finest places in 
the state of Oregon; all of the machinery on the farm is operated by 
electricity, and water is piped all through the barns and poultry house. He 
keeps thirty head of Guernsey cows, a registered Guernsey bull and also has a 
fine flock of sheep. Mr. and Mrs. Bates maintain a few cottages at Ocean Home 
Farm where they board summer visitors from Portland who find many vacation 
delights amid the attractive rural surroundings.

     To Mr. and Mrs. Bates have been born two daughters and a son, namely: 
Barbara, who is ten years of age; Patricia, a little maiden of five summers; 
and Edward, who is one year old.

     In public affairs Mr. Bates has always manifested an active and helpful 
interest and his fellow townsmen, recognizing his worth and ability, have 
chosen him for various important positions of trust and responsibility. He was 
elected to the state legislature on the republican ticket in 1925 and in 1928 
was appointed by Governor Patterson to serve as one of the five members of the 
state educational board for a four-year term, Mr. Bates being chosen to 
represent Oregon's agricultural interests. From 1925 until 1927 he represented 
the Lower Columbia Chambers of Commerce as a member of the reforestation 
commission. He is a member of the port commission of Astoria and has served as 
president and vice president of the Clatsop County Fair Board, having always 
taken a prominent part in promoting its activities and in exhibiting stock. 
Fraternally he is affiliated with the various Masonic bodies, including Al 
Kader Temple of the Mystic Shrine in Portland. He also belongs to the Order of 
the Eastern Star, in which his wife is a past matron, and both are likewise 
consistent and devoted members of the Presbyterian church. While students at 
the Oregon Agricultural College Mr. Bates became a member of the Kappa Sigma 
college fraternity and his wife joined the Alpha Chi Omego sorority. They 
enjoy an enviable position in the social circles of the community in which 
they reside, the circle of their friends being almost coextensive with the 
circle of their acquaintance.

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