Albert Bates

ALBERT BATES. No one is more universally esteemed in Mt. Vernon Township than the old soldier whose name appears at the head of this sketch. He has been a resident of Jefferson County since 1885, during which time he has won an enviable reputation among its agriculturists. He was born near Rochester, N. Y., in 1840, and was only four years of age at the time of his parents' removal to Michigan. They located in Livingston County, where young Albert received his education and grew to manhood.

Thomas J. and Anna (Preston) Bates, the parents of our subject, were natives respectively of Bennington, Vt., and Rochester, N. Y. The father, being deprived of the care of his parents when quite young, was reared by a family in the Green Mountain State, with whom he remained until reaching his majority. He than began life on his own account and followed the trade of a tanner and currier, which he had learned.

He was married in New York to Miss Preston, and after his removal to Michigan followed farming pursuits.

Of the brothers and sisters of our subject we note the following:

Lorinda, Mrs. Celar Mapes, resides in Michigan;
Minerva is the widow of D. Skinner, who died while in the late war;
Sylvester, a resident of Shiawassee County, Mich., served for three years in the Union army as a member of Company E, Twenty-sixth Michigan Infantry, and was wounded before Spottsylvania;
Laura married Henry Farnum;
Mary S. became the wife of Daniel Proper, of Michigan;
Addison is a resident of Ingham County, that state,
Anna, Mrs. David Van Camp, also lives in Ingham County;
Wallace died in Dakota.

In 1862 Albert Bates joined Company E, Twenty-sixth Michigan Infantry, under Col. J. H. Farrah, and first saw the smoke of battle at Bull Run and later at Chickahominy. He was a member of the regiment which was sent to New York to quell the riot and enforce the draft law. After remaining there for two or three months he was again sent to the front, and in the spring of 1864 was present at the battle of the Wilderness. The next conflict in which he was engaged was at Spottsylvania, where he was wounded; for twelve years thereafter he carried an ounce ball in his hip.

Mr. Bates received his honorable discharge in the spring of 1865 and returning to his home in Michigan was married the following year to Miss Amanda Altenburgh, by whom he has the following children:

Herbert, a farmer of Ingham County, Mich.;
Delia, Mrs. Thomas Strand;
Clifford, also living in the Badger State; and
Lillian, the wife of George Brown, of Ingham County.

As before stated, our subject came to this county in 1885, and the lady whom he married soon afterward was Miss Mary S., daughter of Moses Gordon, an old settler of the county. Their home has been blessed by the birth of four children, Edna Fern, Bessie R., Mabel M. and Roy.

Our subject owns a valuable and finely improved farm of two hundred acres, where he carries on general agricultural pursuits, making a specialty of clover raising. Although he came to the county with but little means he is now one of the substantial and well-to-do farmers of this vicinity. He is a stanch adherent of the Populist party anil a prominent member of the Grand Army post at Mt. Vernon.

Source: "Portrait and Biographical Record Clinton, Washington, Marion and Jefferson Counties, Illinois"
Chapman Publishing Co, Chicago, 1894
Page 568-569
Submitted by Sandy Bauer