Guide to the Archival Collections.pdf - Missouri History Museum

Contains brief autobiographical sketch of Charles R. Bates written for the Missouri Historical
Society’s biographical files, written on the stationery of the Transmission Supply Company,
5575-5577-5579 Manchester Ave., St. Louis, Mo.
Cite as: Charles R. Bates Biography, Missouri History Museum Archives, St. Louis.
A0092
Bates Family.
Papers, 1754-1973. 17 boxes; 22 volumes; 1 oversize folder
Frederick Bates (1777-1825) was the son of Quaker parents from Belmont, Goochland
County, Virginia. In 1797, he moved to Detroit, where he engaged in mercantile pursuits and
served for a time as postmaster. He was appointed receiver of public monies for land October 13,
1804. President Jefferson appointed Bates judge over the Territory of Michigan on March 3,
1805. In 1806, he moved to St. Louis where he became recorder of land titles for the Louisiana
Territory. President James Madison appointed him secretary of the Louisiana Territory January
10, 1811, during the administration of General James Wilkinson. In 1824, he was elected
governor of Missouri but died in office August 4, 1825. He married Nancy Ball, daughter of
Colonel John S. Ball of St. Louis County, in 1819. They resided at Thornhill, the Bates
homestead, in Bonhomme Township, St. Louis County. Onward Bates (1850-1936) was born
February 24, 1850, in St. Charles County, Missouri. He spent his boyhood years in St. Louis and
on the farm in St. Charles County. At the age of 15 he entered the Fulton Iron Works as an
apprentice. A few years later, he attracted the attention of Charles Shaler Smith, a distinguished
engineer in the field of designing and building bridges. Smith hired Bates to work on a bridge he
was building over the Missouri River at St. Charles. After two years as a student at the
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute at Troy, New York, Bates was hired to work on the Eads Bridge.
In the following decades, Bates worked on and supervised numerous bridge building projects in
the United States, as well as a three-year stint in Australia. He served as president of the
American Society of Civil Engineers. In 1892, he married Virginia Castleman Breckinridge,
daughter of Judge Samuel M. Breckinridge. Onward Bates died in 1936 in Augusta, Georgia.
The papers include family correspondence, letter books, legal papers, and business and
political correspondence of Edward and Frederick Bates and of other members of the family,
including Barton, Onward, and Tarleton Bates. The collection contains material on family
history, political affairs of the colonies, the French and Indian War (1796), land matters, Indian
relations, the Civil War and reconstruction years, and several letter books and papers of Onward
Bates concerning bridge construction. Also includes are minutes of the recorder of land titles,
1812-1814; lists of civil and militia appointments in the territory, 1810-1811; abstracts of
provision for the Missouri militia, 1813-1816; claims to lead mines in Missouri; and
correspondence with Governor William Clark seeking commissions, military promotions, and
petitions for appointments of justice of the peace. Collection also includes letter books of
Frederick Bates, among which is one volume of photostats of letters written during his tenure as
postmaster in Detroit (1789-1809); and two original volumes of letters, with two volumes of
photostatic copies, written while he was postmaster in Detroit and in Goochland, Virginia (1807-
1812). These letters relate to business and government. A photostat letterbook of Tarleton Bates,
written from Pittsburgh, to brother Frederick Bates, discusses social and family issues (1795-
1805). Also includes several journals and diaries of Edward Bates, among which is a journal of
his law studies (1847), two diaries (1847 and 1846-1852) in which he comments extensively on
St. Louis politics, and three photostat journals (1859-1866) in which he comments on national
and local politics prior to and during the Civil War. Includes a letterpress letterbook of Onward
Bates, inspector of bridges and trestles in Pittsburgh, relating to business matters (1875-1876).