IV.  Gates Name, Professions & Dates

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So, the creator of the American Gates name is (Andreas Goetz/Andrew Gates) in Gibson County southern Indiana for only 17 months when he dies at the age of 39 in Feb 1852.  Let’s take a look at the whole family in Feb 1852:

• Wife, Mary, is 31 years old

• Son, Christian, is 14 years old

• Daughter, Carolina, is 10 years old

• Son, Andrew, is 9 years old

• Daughter, Louis, is 7 years old

• Son, Jacob William, is 5 years old

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We do now know Andrew’s youngest son, Jacob William Gates, is Rich and Jim’s great grandfather who lived many years in the Harrisburg IL area as a farmer and preacher.  We also know that he is buried in Harrisburg in the Sunset Cemetery.  Research has yielded a special article in the 2 May 1931 Harrisburg Daily Register that is really nice:

• Jacob William Gates:

  • Retired farmer and minister

  • Whose “own life was one of thrift and usefulness”

  • Whose “large family of children are among Saline County’s most excellent citizens”

  • Died of pneumonia at 5:20 am Sunday 2 March 1931 at the age of 84 years old

  • Buried in Sunset Cemetery in Harrisburg IL

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Now we must define Jacob’s life from Southern Indiana at 5 years old after his father’s death to his own death in Harrisburg IL area.  He created both a huge family and a big reputation in Harrisburg and Saline County IL.  

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The 1850 Montgomery County Indiana Census shows Andrew, Mary and all 5 kids in Gibson County IN near  city of Princeton IN.  The 1870 Census shows Jacob William Gates to be in Warrick County IN near the city of  Evansville IN (29 miles from Princeton, IN).  Benjamin David Gates, grandfather of Richard and Jim, was born  in a log cabin in 1879 in White County IL just south of Carmi IL (32 miles from Harrisburg IL) according to the 1880 US Census.  The 1880 Census shows Jacob William Gates in White County IL near the town of Carmi IL.  In Jan 1892, both Jacob and Benjamin David Gates are in Saline County IL settled on a farm 4 miles east of  Harrisburg when Ben was 12 years old.

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1850 Indiana Census

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1870 IL Census

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1880 IL Census

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PAUSE AND REFLECT

Why did Jacob finally choose Saline County IL to settle and finish having and raising 13 kids in 27 years?  He, like his father, was still looking for the “real good” farmland.  He learned Harrisburg was a thriving town with excellent farmland, coal mines and salt mines – it was thriving and growing.  He could also see that the Shawnee Indians thought the same – they also like the Saline River for fishing and living on the banks.  Saline mean salt, which the Indians used to preserve their hunted animal meat.  However, they both knew that they would have problems and conflicts later.  They both had hope though because the state named Illinois was named after the Illini Indians that spanned the whole state.  It was not much later when the mayor of Harrisburg wanted to have a ceremonial, cordial meeting together to discuss how could both groups live together and prosper.  The day of the meeting, the mayor of Harrisburg was preparing to start to speak when a Shawnee Indian sent an arrow right through his heart.  There were more problems for sure and immediately, but we know how it all worked out – America invented Indian reservations.  Jacob and Benjamin are living together with Ben gets married.  Let’s look at the life event flow of each from an independent view, starting first with Jacob.

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HISTORICAL HIGHLIGHTS OF JACOB WILLIAM GATES

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Jacob is now happy to be “on the fertile land” “ready to farm” and “finish out the family.”  Here it is Jan 1892 and he has Joseph C, Andrew J, Rudolph L, John Jacob, William J, John W, Benjamin D, Lewis A, Charles F, George E and Henry G – 9 boys – lots of laborers!  No wonder he was soon recognized in the area as a good farmer.  He and the boys are 4 miles east of Harrisburg in Cottage Township.  He soon adds the last 3 children – twin girls (Mary E and Mary e) and 10th son Everett 5 years later.  Jacob W looks up in Spring of 1892 and realizes he is 45 years old.  I know farming - at 8 or 9 years old you are doing adult farm jobs feeding chickens pigs, goats, milking cows, tending cattle guineas, horses (for pulling farm implements).  

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Jacob looks up in Jan 1892 and also realizes he has passed the average life expectancy for the 1890s.  I would ask you to notice that the American Gates males’ names most often include the names of biblical apostles or an American icon or both like Benjamin David Gates and his son Benjamin Franklin Gates.  I do not know how often Jacob previously went to American churches.  I do know he was baptized as a baby in Philadelphia PA.  Anyway, at this time in America in the heartland of agriculture. People were spread out, but wanted both social contact and church like back home.   Jacob William heard about the community-wide need, got several men to better define the need and then they created a plan to meet a very important need – social contact plus Christian church services.

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Jacob set out to get “the brethren” together at Sunday morning services followed by lunch since they had a long, slow way to get there and get back. He was part of the group of men who met to define the community church needs. They set the Christian standards on how to become and to be a minister in the new Social Brethren Association. I have a book (with pictures) that my mother had called Social brethren History for 1867-1967 (100th Anniversary). Below photo was taken at the 1893 Association meeting that shows Jacob William Gates - in fact his youngest son Everette took the photos. This book shows the newly constructed Wasson Social Brethren Church built in 1921 – 300 yards from Grandma and Grandpa Hess’ house. My family went to Big Ridge Missionary Baptist Church, but also went to the Wasson Social Brethren Church when they asked my mom to help them out as choir pianist for about a year or so.
 

Jacob and the Association ministers (local and circuit riding) more than accomplished their plan. Their first church, Mount Pleasant, was the first Social Brethren Church. It started in log cabin in 1867 and was replaced by a new building in 1895. The number of Association Pastors and Social Brethren Churches grew and grew – they were just like the Apostles who Jesus told to take the Good News Gospel to the four corners of the Earth.

 

 

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I have pictures and a story of all the serial in time churches that were started in existing buildings or were new built structures.  These founding church preachers experienced great material

sacrifice and inconvenience to themselves and their families. But their souls had to be pleased as the Social Brethren Churches expanded even into other states such as Michigan and Missouri, etc. The Association finally declares the Social Brethren Church to be a new American religious denomination.

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Jacob arrived in Harrisburg IL in Jan 1892.  He rather soon started his Social Brethren work.   He was  officially ordained a minister in 1909.  He pastored local Shiloh and Cedar Bluff Churches.  He died in 1931.

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I close with the Harrisburg Daily Register newspaper editor’s obituary notes about Jacob William Gates and his many children: (1) Jacob ‘s life was one of usefulness to all and (2) whose “large family of children are among Saline County’s most excellent citizens.”  He died in less than a week of pneumonia.  He surely died happy given his big family loved him, he was widely respected by both the farming community and the Social Brethren Church members plus he headed to continued servitude to his Heavenly Father.

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HISTORICAL HIGHLIGHTS OF BENJAMIN DAVID GATES

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Ben liked the schools in Saline County.  He attended the local schools in the winter months – he liked school very much and soon decided he wanted to be a schoolteacher.  He then started going to Southern Illinois Normal University to train teachers (38 miles west of Harrisburg in Carbondale IL)  The State of IL started adding general studies and changed its name in 1867 to Southern Illinois University.

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He excelled and got his certificate and commenced to teaching in the fall of 1896 and continued teaching for 18 years.  In 1900, he started teaching in Raleigh IL just 5 miles from Harrisburg.  He got the reputation of being a “very successful teacher” per the county superintendent of schools, James Turner, because he maintained strict discipline and required thorough work of his pupils.

 

Ben (also called BD) got to be known community wide and was then asked to run for the Supervisor of Cottage Township.  He was elected Supervisor of Cottage Township and chosen as President of the County Board, being the first Republican to serve in that capacity over a period of 30 years – known as the one who wants to improve the county he lives in.

 

The Saline County Superintendent of Schools election came up in 1914.  It was a hotly contested election between EM Morris, John H Stout, and WT Lacy – BD Gates decided to also run.  He won saying he would “improve the conditions of all the schools of the county as rapidly as possible and raise the professional spirit of all teachers to a standard worth of their profession.”  At the end of his first term, he ran again – no contenders stood up against him – knowing he did what he said he would do.

 

In his second term (1914-1918), he took on serious issues like teacher salaries.  He told teachers the community will not support better salaries unless teachers give them better services/teaching.  He also took special care of his teachers’ certificates during WWII (28 July 1914-11 Nov 1918) while they were defending the principles of liberty and freedom on the battle fronts of Europe.

 

In 1918, Ben is 39 years old – he has also been growing in other major ways.  Married to Olive Bea Oliver on 20 August 1902 when he was 23 years old.  He had a daughter Opal on 17 Jan 1904.  He also had 2 sons – Alvin Kenneth on 6 June 1905 and Benjamin Franklin on 8 June 1911.  He became a most successful farmer on his 160-acre farm and built the house to raise his family.  That house is the same house that Richard Gates has long lived in and still living in this May 2020.  It sits on top of a ridge about a quarter of a mile off Muddy Road.  The front porch off the house was designed to look directly at both the Shawnee Forest and Shawnee Mountains.  This area of Cottage Township was known as the “New Hope Community.”  About a dozen families in this area built the New Hope School where Richard, Jim and David took 8 years of grade school with 1 teacher for all subjects for all 8 grades.  The New Hope School was a 1 room school with 2 cloak rooms, one for boys and one for girls.  There was a coal furnace in the basement for heat in the winter.  Jim Gates was the hired janitor in his 7-8 grades.  Jim got to school early and got the school warm, swept and cleaned up and re-positioned chairs in rows.  Had to ash-down the fire in the late afternoon before going home.  Jim made $5/month for this job.  The New Hope School set on 3 acres at the intersection of Lindale Road and Muddy Road – ¾ mile from 2 Gates houses – the Ole Gates Place and Ben Gates’ house.  The teacher (Ms. Reiner) lived upstairs at ____ Alvey family and walked about ½ mile to and from school each day.  The only time she walked to your house was when she wanted to report you to your parents about your behavior that required their attention.  I don’t know, but would think, Grandpa Ben Gates plus Alvin Kenneth Gates both played roles in creating and building the New Hope School – will keep researching to find final story.

 

Benjamin David Gates continued to be thrust/pulled into Saline County major new initiatives.  Two critical to both county and country initiatives were the (1) Farm Bureau and (2) Electricity in rural America.  The American Farm Bureau Federation was formed in Chicago IL on 12 Nov 1919.  At the IL Farm Bureau 1932 Annual Meeting, it was decided the organization must improve “net farm income.”  Benjamin David was regarded by many as one of the outstanding advocates of progressive farming and measures to benefit the farmer in Saline County.  He was one of the organizers and charter members of the Saline County Farm Bureau.

 

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Benjamin David’s biggest business venture ever started after President Franklin D Roosevelt on 11 May 1935 signed the Executive Order 7037m that created the USA Rural Electrification Administration (REA).  In other words – get electricity for lights and running water to all of America’s rural and farming areas (this venture would also help solve the employment problems n this Great Depression America in 1929-1939.  Each state then had a REA that flowed down to every country in every state.  Saline County IL better get cracking and get a leader to get it done for every rural house and barn and shed and cattle water trough, etc.  Ben was the first President of the new Board of Trustees for the Southeastern IL Electric Cooperative (SEIC).  Ben Gates was re-elected every 3 years until his death required a change.

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Benjamin David Gates was a Big Thinker, Big Planner, Big Leader/Doer – for all those around him – family, community, school, farmer and businessman across Saline County.

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He was in poor health his last 2 or 3 years – so ill that he got a special driving permit for Richard to be able to drive him to many of his meetings.  He is buried in Raleigh, IL.

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HISTORICAL HIGHLIGHTS OF BEA OLIVE (OLIVER) GATES

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Olive Bea was an Eldorado area farm girl who got Grandpa Ben Gates’ full attention.

   

There are no historical facts on how the introduction and courtship unfolded, but it resulted in a lifelong marriage showing devotion to each other.  Somethings you can’t explain, but I always marveled at Olive’s sister who had a foot operated air-driven organ in her home.  She could play any song after she heard it once.  No sheet music, her husband operating the foot pump, she would belt out the music (and sing if she wanted to) piece.  They called it playing the organ by ear.  I still do not understand it – we all have so many talents, some we never develop to our or the world’s advantage.

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Olive and Ben Gates, soon after marriage, bought the 160-acre farm on Muddy Road in New Hope Community and built a new house just about ½ mile from where New Hope School ended up being built.  That is the house that Richard Allen Gates is still living today.

 

I remember Grandma Olive’s cooking.  It was okay for years.  Then she thought and later came to believe her cooking caused someone to get the disease called trichinosis (caused by undercooked meat).  From then on, she burnt her meat, potatoes, sausage, etc.  But nobody else ever again talked about or caught trichinosis.  She also would walk up and down the long driveway to the house to “pick her greens” for summer lunch and dinner.  My problem was her salad dressings never had enough strength to overcome the greens…must have been just my problem – everyone else at their greens.

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Grandma Gates regularly had several visitors – family, politicians, REA ISEIC Board members, neighbor farmers for a “community hog kill and butcher day.”  Grandpa knew everybody.

 

I never knew why Grandpa had 4-6 goats all the time – thought he liked their playfulness, like Richard and Jim.  Richard recently explained to me Grandpa was lactose intolerant to cow’s milk

so grandma had to process the goat milk (which I never saw her do).

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Olive had the longest hair I have ever seen.  She would “let her hair down” and it would touch the floor, plus some more.  She would comb and brush it out – then roll it up into what she called a bun.  She had more than 1 type of hair bun.  Richard and I both remember

she would do that while we sat on Grandpa’s lap and sang songs like

Turkey in the Straw/Turkey in the Hay.  We would meld our melodies

while Grandma combed her hair.  Don’t know why she did that,

because she never sang along with us.

 

When Grandpa Gates died, Alvin and Dora moved into their house, to help Olive Bea get along better.  She started suffering from what today we call dementia.

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Later when Olive and Dad died Dora got tired of living alone. Richard and family moved into Ben & Olive’s house … Richard still lives there today.

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HISTORICAL HIGHLIGHTS OF ALVIN KENNETH GATES

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Alvin’s grandfather Jacob and father Benjamin arrived (from Carmi, Illinois) in Harrisburg, Illinois in January 1892.  Both are farmers continuing the noble tradition, that led Daniel Webster to say, “Farmers are the Founders of Civilization.”  Alvin was born on June 6, 1905

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At a very young age, Alvin sets the model for Richard and Jim for taking care of chickens, cows, horses, guineas, steers, pigs – and we did it for years.

 

Alvin goes to local elementary schools, and then graduates from Harrisburg Township High School (HTHS) in May 1920.  The big new gymnasium was not added until 1925.  Got to add some focused history here.

• 1890:    first HTHS classes

• 1896:    Harry Taylor became principal and held that job for 50 years

•              when Richard, Jim and David attended

• 1900:    first year to have all 4 classes (freshman through seniors)

• 1904:    Full accredited by the University of Illinois

• 1940:    Largest ever graduating class with 226 graduates

 

It was to be noted that in this timeframe and beyond there were independent/separate Harrisburg schools across the railroad tracks, for the colored people and students…even when recall that the Civil War was in 1861-1865.

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Alvin keeps farming with/for his dad, who was always busy with politics, school issues and formulating other new ideas.  

 

Alvin marries Dora Hess from Wasson and Eldorado Township High School in 1925 at the age of 20.

 

During 1926-1927 school year, Alvin attends the University of Illinois as a freshman of general studies while Dora worked locally.

 

Alvin and Dora then moved to St. Louis, Missouri where Alvin attended the School of Pharmacy at St. Louis University.  They lived on Pine Street nearby.  I remember Mom asking me (when she was visiting my family when we lived in Florissant, MO) to take her to Pine Street to reminisce.

May 19 1928 Alvin Kenneth Gates Jr was born in St Louis, MO.

Oct 1 1928 Alvin Kenneth Gates Jr died in St Louis, MO.

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Alvin and Dora go back to farming.  Alvin is farming with those huge Belgium horses to pull a wagon and “shuck” corn (i.e., take a glove with a hook in it to rip the leaves off the corn and then throw the bare ear of corn into the Belgium horse drawn wagon. (PHOTO). He is reading and hearing about “tractors” with gasoline engines that can pull farm implements like plow, discs, harrows, manure spreaders, etc.  These machines will have the power to pull that of many horses and will absolutely revolutionize farming!

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Alvin and Dora go to live in Chicago, Illinois and both get a job at the International Harvester Company that is building tractors.  F-12 is one of the earliest models.  I have data that shows they are still there in Chicago in 1935.  But Jacob William died in 1928, so his farm situation had changed.

 

They decide to leave the big, bustling city of Chicago and come home to Harrisburg.  In 1938 they were living in the Old Gates Place and they had Richard Allen Gates on Jan 26, 1938.  Twenty-one months later, they had their 3rd son, James Kenneth on Oct 30, 1939.  Their 4th son, David Lee Gates was born on Aug 26, 1943 in Eldorado.  With all this help, Alvin started getting involved in politics, like his father did.  We all 5 lived in the Ole Gates Place farming both that farm and Grandpa Ben’s farm – just a mile away.  

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The Ole Gates Place was a big house on Lindale Road.  Set on a concrete block system, it had 11-foot ceilings and 9-foot doors on first level with a pantry, kitchen, dining room, front room with fireplace and piano, closet and sitting room with coal stove for heating.  It did not have running water because electricity had not yet come out to the rural areas of America.  So we had a hand-operated pump in the front yard and carried water into the kitchen.  But, thanks to Grandpa Gates and the REA, we got electricity in the house when Richard was in the 4th grade (10 years old).  Until that time, we studied and read by kerosene lamps.  It was not much longer that we got an open line telephone system.  Our unique call was for someone to ring up one long and one short and another long ring.

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The upstairs had 3 bedrooms.  One bedroom was for parents, one bedroom shared by the boys and the third was for visitors.  The boys’ bedroom also had a library of books filed in pull-up and

push-in glass cabinet doors. So many books!  All kinds of books!  Had stairs that went up to a landing and then turned 90 degrees to go on up to the bedroom floors.  The downstairs walls were wallpapered.  Had outdoor porches on 3 sides of the house.

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Every year Richard, Jim and David could do more with the cows, pigs, chickens, guineas, steers, etc.  Moreover, they could now drive tractors with plows, discs, harrows, etc.

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Dad got the first tractor – an International Harvester F-12 with the pull power of 10 horses, call 10 horsepower.  WOW!  He had this by the time Richard was 4 or 5 years old (1943ish).  Be sure to

see the photos of the family of tractors we acquired over time. We went through the sequence of IH’s F-12 to a “Hugh” McCormick Deering W-30 with 18 horsepower – a Ferguson 20 horsepower and a Farmall M with 25 horsepower (in some factory tests demonstrated 33 horsepower).  First 2 were steel wheeled and last 2 had were rubber tired.  I fondly remember driving the last 3 – started driving at 8 or 9 years old.  I remember driving the Hagh MD W-30 – would sit upon the back big wheel fender with my feet in the seat and hear the power.

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We were all very lucky really, because January 1937 Harrisburg’s Daily Register presented photos and articles on a severe Saline River flooding that had waters 10’ deep over Saline County – just 1 inch more and water would be in the Old Gates House upstairs – don’t know what depth it would have taken to float/move the house off its foundation and break it up. I felt like Superman (and he had not even been in the movies yet).  I would feel like a skinny kid that was weak though when I turned the W-30 too sharp, and catch dirt build-up around big Front Iron Wheels – then had to walk home or to another field and have Richard or Dad come back to use their strength to turn it back straight.  Or I would look back at 8-10 feet wide rolls of deep cutter discs and start to think about how many pieces I would be cut into if I fell off the fender.  I likely spent too much time imagining things or dreaming up different/better ways of doing things on the farm.

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But as Richard, Jim and David got older, Dad had more and more time freed to engage in politics.  He thoroughly enjoyed his elected position to be the Commissioner of Cottage Township.  He also engaged in State politics and would work with Republican Everett Dirksen, both as a State Representative and later a State Senator in Washington DC.  He would sit in his chair and read Illinois State Statutes for hours – but was easy really.  We did not have anything to do in the evening until we got electricity.

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After dinner, we had a radio after we got electricity about 1948, when I was in second grade at New Hope School.  But we spent most time not hearing it or listening to his favorite programs.  We never got a TV at the Ole Gates House.  Dad thought TV would be a bane to American Society. (Bane means to ruin, harm, spoil).  In those days, every Saturday night Mom and Dad would visit friends in town and eat/play cards/ talk while we boys walked up to town and went to the movie theater.  When the friends got TV – and started turning them on after dinner, dad would be ready to go home.  He preferred to talk and ask questions and learn something important or helpful to himself or his family or the world in general.

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Mom and Dad moved from the Ole Gates Place to his Dad’s house, after Benjamin died – to take care of his Mom – who had health problems.  The move was only a mile away.  This house was also 2 levels – had running water, 2 kitchens (up and down), flush toilet, tub, full electric.  They took care of Olive Bea for 15 years.  Alvin died 1 year later.

 

Dora stayed a few years and then moved to an older folks’ apartment building in Eldorado.  She soon became the social director and kept them going out on bus rides to see the fall foliage in southern Indiana, etc.  She also did serious ancestry work on the Hess family and Social Brethren Church.

 

Alvin, Dora, Alvin Jr and David are all buried in the Raleigh, Illinois Wolf Creek Cemetery.

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My memories of Dad have impacted me greatly.  His approach to us boys was based on plain and

proven principles.  He never had a written crisp set of rules, but I lived with him and perceived them

to be:

• Honor – respect others

• Honesty – never lie

• Hard work – plus do it well or stand aside and let somebody else do it well

• Help your community and neighbors in need

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Just as an example: Jim was sent on Farmall M to plow the Moore 40-acre field.  It was on a hillside slope.  Dad told me what direction to plow.  I plowed it up and down the hill so I could go faster.  Dad came home from politics and saw me and ran to me with his hands up!  He preached to me about soil erosion and instructed me to write an essay to the Farm Bureau on Soil Erosion!  I won the Farm Bureau $25 award for the best erosion essay of the year!  Dad never said a thing.  I learned a lot!  I have now loved Dad and that farm for over 80 years!

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Dad had a few simply spoken rules for us all to live by…There are 5 of us to eat, we should not waste anything (he came out of the Depression and WWII rations environment).  You must eat what you put on your plate. Well one noon lunch, I did not eat all I put on my plate, and he said, “Mom put Jim’s lunch plate in the icebox.”  Come dinner time, I sat down and was staring at my plate from lunch.  Decided to show Dad, I sat through supper and did not eat again and said nothing.  At the end of supper, dad said, “Mom put Jim’s plate in the ice box.”  My brothers could not believe me.   Richard said he bet Dad will win the “stand-off war.”  Come breakfast the next day, there sat my previous day lunch leftovers plate.  Vigorously I ate my leftovers and looked forward to my new day lunch where I took little and took more, only as needed a spoonful at a time.  Dad was a good teacher also…like his father.

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Dad and Mom never had a set of conditions that they reviewed before they decided to whip one of us.  Looking back at the 4 Hs listed earlier, I think those were used here as well.  David never got a whipping that I can remember.  I asked Richard about this and we re-created the events where a whipping by Dad happened.  The list is 5 incidents long.  Jim was involved in all 5 of them; Richard was only in 3 of them and David was not in any of them.

• Jim learned how to run through the yard and jump up on woven fence by the old Magnolia tree and spring up in the air and catch a limb and flip over it and land in a crouched stance.  Once cousin Donald Gene Bramlet stayed all night – and next morning Dad had to go to town and warned Jim to not do the tree trick with Donald Gene.  We looked up the gravel road going to New Hope School and saw a dust storm from car coming down the road.  We all concluded we only had time for one more jump.  Donald Gene fell and really “busted up his elbow.”  After the hospital trip for Donald Gene, Dad gave Jim and Richard a whipping.  Richard said, “We earned it.”  Donald Gene died with his elbow “busted up.”

• Dad was constantly smoking his pipe – must have tasted or smelled good.  The Rabbit Dock plant in the hot July wheat field looked just like Dad’s tobacco pouch stuff.  Richard and Jim both had comic books from. the dime store in town.  We got the matches in the kitchen and hid  behind the very tall corn crib with lots of corn and many shucks.  We tamped the weed stuff down the tube of a rolled-up comic book and lit up and puffed hard.  We were not settled down when mom yelled from the house,“come here boys” (needed something but can’t remember what).  We, without thinking about it enough, dropped our comic books and ran to the house.  We did what mom wanted done and then looked at the corn crib with flames and smoke rising skyward. Oh NO!  Richard said, “We earned it!”

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• Richard and I were in the loft of Grandpa’s very high barn chasing an apparent hurt pigeon.  Jim even climbed onto a rooftop attached inside rail to drop hay bales outside.  As he was hand walking, the pigeon walked all the way out of the barn in the roof overhang…the old rail broke (unattached) and Jim fell to the ground. Jim was motionless – and did not know what happened for some time…was rushed to the hospital.  Jim left the hospital with broken collar bone – never knew how many breaks, but I came out with iron slats from waist to upper neck and extended over arms from waist to elbow, with forearms hanging down vertically.  I wore that outfit almost all summer.  I did not know dad whipped Richard for being a par of this venture until we talked recently.  I was super glad Richard was with me – he helped me to start breathing again down on the ground.  In retrospect, I was lucky – Richard to help me breath again and moreover the ground was softer due to livestock being/moving around on the ground all the time.

• Gates boys were walking ¾ miles to New Hope School one morning and Jim picked up a dead black snake and put it in the teacher’s lunch pail before school started.  Lunch time started when teacher pulled up her lunch pail to her desktop and opened it.  She screamed, pushed back her chair and fell down.  It was not as funny as I thought it would be.  I was the first to laugh. She immediately made me crawl into the open space under her desk where her chair fit.  She made me stay there until school was out, then she walked me home to tell my folks.  The she walked home to the house where she stayed during the school term.  Dad read that as a “dishonor” to the teacher and whipped me.  Richard said, “You earned it.”

• We boys got a gift croquet game (knocking wooden balls through metal wickets with wooden mallets).  Jim is about to win approaching the last wicket.  Dad walks by and picked up my ball.  I ask for it and he put his arm/hand out but then flips his hand over so I cannot get my ball…did not find this trick funny.  So, I raised my arm back, with mallet in hand.  He says, “Whoa! Do you mean if I don’t give you this ball that you will hit me with your mallet?”  I said, Yes.  Dad goes into the house with my ball and comes back out with the ball plus his razor strap.  Mom comes out and tells him he is hurting Jim with that leather strap to which Dad replies, “I want Jim to remember this the rest of his life.”  Dad took my action as dishonoring a parent.  Richard said, “You Earned it.”

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Through all this ancestry research, I observed that some ancestors do some things that grab your attention, because you too would like to do that…teach, politics, farm, etc.  I know several Gates’ who like to fish.

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See Jacob William with a big catfish and a big smile.  

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Alvin Kenneth caught a Tri-State (Illinois, Indiana and Kentucky) record bass at Sahara Coal Company Lake that officially weighed 10 lbs 4 ozs.  When he caught it, he believed/hoped it was a record-breaker so he immediately (1) put it in a water bucket and (2) raced to town to have it weighed at Kurpo’s Meat Shop on a precise scale, (3) had Holiday’s Restaurant freeze it then Gaskin Funeral  Home put it on dry ice and (4) shipped it to the Schwartz Studio to mount it behind glass enclosure.  Richard still has this hanging upstairs on his wall in the sitting room.