CHARLES A. GATES

The History of West Virginia, Old and New
Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc.,
Chicago and New York, Volume III,
pg. 573
Kanawha

CHARLES A. GATES. An acute, cool-headed man of busi-
ness may command respect because of his great capacity
for managing vast enterprises and his power to change
circumstances and conditions to suit his will, and may have
as chosen associates others of like caliber and similar power
and interests; but in order to secure the confidence and
esteem of his fellowmen he must have other qualities of a
tenderer fiber. This applies particularly to Charles A. Gates,
of Charleston, who for so long a time was prominently
identified with affairs of the most vital business interests
in the city. In control of important concerns for years, he
proved his business sagacity and foresight beyond question,
and at the same time his interest in everything calculated
to advance the general welfare was such as to gain him un-
qualified respect and friendship.

Mr. Gates was born April 21, 1858, in Ohio, and came to
Charleston in 1883. Here he founded a retail grocery busi-
ness of which he was the head for twenty-eight and one-
half years, during which time he built it up to be the leader
of its kind in the city. The C. A. Gates Grocery Com-
pany, Incorporated, was located at 110 Capitol Street,
in the Gates Building, which he had purchased, and he con-
tinued as its active head until 1910, in which year he sold
out and turned his attention to the production of oil and
dealing in real estate. In company with John Davidson he
organized companies conducting development operations in
Ohio and West Virginia, especially on Blue Creek in the
latter state, and dealt extensively in real estate properties.
He is still interested in oil production, is the owner of the
Gates Building at Charleston and is a director in the Citizens
National Bank, but makes his winter home at Fort Pierce,
Florida, and is busily engaged in managing his 160-acre
orange grove. Mr. Gates has always been a supporter of
all worthy movements of a civic, commercial and educational
character, and is an active member of the Kanawha Pres-
byterian Church, in which he served as treasurer and mem-
ber of the Board of Trustees for many years.

At Wheeling, West Virginia, Mr. Gates married Miss
Clara I. Cole, who was reared at Wheeling, and they be-
came the parents of two children: Mabel L., who is the
wife of Mason Crickard, assistant cashier of the Union
Trust Company of Charleston; and Charles B., both born
at Charleston.

Charles B. Gates attended the public schools of Charles-
ton, following which he pursued a special law course at
Washington and Lee University, then becoming associated
with his father in his various interests. He is accounted
one of the energetic and capable business men of his city.
During the World war he was commissioned a first lieutenant
of field artillery in the First Officers' Training Camp at
Fort Benjamin Harrison, Indianapolis, Indiana, but did not
see overseas duty, his service being confined to various
camps in this country, including Camp Jackson, South Caro-
lina. Mr. Gates married Miss Harriet K. Hostetter, of Han-
over, Pennsylvania, and they have one son, Charles B., Jr.

Submitted by:  vfcrook@trellis.net (Valerie F. Crook) 

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