Multnomah County OR Archives Biographies.....Bates, Paul Chapman April 16, 1874 - ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/or/orfiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Ila Wakley iwakley@msn.com February 15, 2011, 2:50 pm Source: History of the Columbia River Valley From The Dalles to the Sea, Vol. III, Published 1928, Pages 965 - 966 Author: The S. J. Clarke Publishing Company PAUL CHAPMAN BATES. Portland has profited in many ways by the constructive efforts of Paul Chapman Bates, an enterprising business man of well balanced capacities and powers and the executive head of the city's largest insurance firm. A native of Southampton, Massachusetts, he was born April 16, 1874, a son of Daniel W. and Martha (Tyler) Bates. Throughout the Civil war the father was a sergeant in the Twenty-seventh Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry and valiantly defended the Union cause. At Cold Harbor he was wounded and also sustained injuries in two other battles. For many years he was engaged in the brokerage business at Westfield, Massachusetts, where he passed away in 1917, and his wife's death occurred in that city in April, 1920. Paul C. Bates was reared in the Bay state and completed his high school course at Westfield. At the early age of thirteen he became a wage earner, obtaining work in a whip factory. His employers soon recognized his worth and he was steadily promoted. In 1892 he went to Springfield, Massachusetts, and for a year was private secretary to the cashier and assistant treasurer of the Connecticut River Railway Company. During that time the line was purchased by the Boston & Maine Railroad Company. In the latter part of 1893 he was an accountant in the Comptroller's Department of the New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad Company and later in the same year, on account of ill health, taught a rural school near Florida, Massachusetts. In November, 1893, Mr. Bates responded to the call of the west and allied his interests with those of Portland, Oregon. For a few months he was a clerk in the insurance office of his brother, Philip Bates, and then took over the business, which he sold in September, 1896. In that year he was made traveling field supervisor and agency organizer for the Pennsylvania Fire Insurance Company of Philadelphia, and his duties in that connection took him throughout Oregon, Washington and Idaho. Two years later he became field agent in the same territory for the Union Assurance Company and for the Law Union & Crown of London, England, with which he was identified from 1898 until 1903. On January 1, 1903, he became a partner in the Portland firm of McCargar & Bates, which existed until 1909, when the style of McCargar, Bates & Lively was adopted. This was maintained until March 1, 1924, when the present form of Bates, Lively & Pearson was assumed, and the extent of the enterprise is indicated by the fact that the firm underwrites annually in premiums over one million dollars. The partners write insurance of all kinds and their business now covers Oregon and a portion of Washington. An expert solicitor, Mr. Bates has fostered the growth of the business by tireless effort, close attention to detail and the exercise of his powers of organization and administration. In other lines of endeavor he has been equally successful and through his efforts many millions of capital have been invested in Oregon property. During the past decade he handled five timber deals and over ten million dollars was involved in these transactions. He engineered the largest timber deal ever made in the state, negotiating the sale of approximately two billion and a half feet of timber in Clatsop, Tillamook and Columbia counties for a consideration of four million dollars, one-fourth of which was paid in cash by David C. Eccles, president of the Oregon-American Lumber Company. Subsequently, the purchasers invested three million dollars in constructing a railroad from the Columbia river to open up the timber as an operating property. The land area involved was twenty-seven thousand, three hundred and twenty-five acres---a district twelve times larger than the state of Delaware. Shortly after completing this transaction Mr. Bates closed the sale of another timber tract of over seventy-five thousand acres located in eastern Oregon. Mr. Bates was one of the organizers of the Hazelwood Cream Company of Portland and the Hawley Pulp & Paper Company of Oregon City, becoming a director of each corporation. For the past twenty years he has taken an active interest in vessels operating in the coast lumber carrying trade, having been a stockholder in a score or more vessels of this type, many of which were built on the Columbia river. Mr. Bates has also found time for agricultural pursuits, and one of his diversions is his productive farm near Portland devoted to the growing of all kinds of fruits and vegetables. On November 8, 1903, Mr. Bates was married in Portland to Miss Agnete Poulsen, a daughter of Johan Poulsen, a native of Denmark, and they have become the parents of two sons: Joe, who was born in 1906 and is associated with his father in business; and Hamilton, who was born July 28, 1907. The younger son attended Dartmouth College and is now connected with the Babson statistical organization. Mr. and Mrs. Bates are affiliated with the Congregational church, and his political allegiance is given to the republican party. He belongs to the Irvington, Waverly and Multnomah Clubs and holds a life membership in the last named. In the activities of the Portland Chamber of Commerce he takes a leading part and for recreation turns to fishing, golf and other outdoor sports. Mr. Bates is essentially a member of the class of doers, gifted with initiative and quick resolve, and never stops short of the attainment of his objective. File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/or/multnomah/bios/bates1512gbs.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/orfiles/ File size: 6.2 Kb