I wasn’t quite six when Granddaddy died. My memories are hazy, but I do remember that my parents and I lived with him and my grandmother, Bigmama, for a while.
If I concentrate really hard, I can see him sitting in his recliner. The memory is always gold-tinged, sepia like the faded pictures we have from those days. Granddaddy would sit in that chair and watch TV with Lady, his black and tan Chihuahua, laying behind his neck and across his shoulders. I remember him wearing painter’s overalls or all white painter’s clothes whenever he was at home at the house on Black’s Bluff Road, up the hill behind Stokes’ Bait Shop. Scrambled into those memories is a taxidermy owl that, despite nearly losing one of its wings, still scared me nearly to death from its perch on the back porch.
I dreaded bathroom visits because you had to walk past that owl to get to the bathroom, which had been added on to the back porch.
My favorite memory is a sweet, sweet incident with Lady that beautifully illustrates the loyalty of a dog.
Granddaddy was pretty sick and had to spend several days in the hospital, it may have been longer, I’m not sure. Not long after he was admitted to the hospital, Lady disappeared. Everybody in my family looked for her. I remember walking with my mama, my cousins Delane and Jackie and Bigmama all through the house and around the yard calling her name, “Lady! Here girl! “Laaaay-deeeeee!” She never came, and nobody told Granddaddy she was missing. They were afraid the news would make him sicker.
One day after Granddaddy had been in the hospital about a week, my mama and Jackie were packing a change of pajamas and underwear to take to him. They went into his bedroom and pulled clothes from the chest of drawers that stood between two beds. When they opened the bottom drawer, there was Lady. Missing my grandfather, she found a way to climb into his dresser drawer and curl up on his pajamas to be near his scent. She never made a sound. Up until then Bigmama didn’t care much for Lady, but after that she and Lady had a special bond.
I love that story.
Ollie Bates was born in 1902 to Leonidas C. Bates and Martha or Mattie Almaroad Bates in McMinnville, Tennessee. In the 1910 United States Census, my great-grandfather had shortened his name to Lon Charles, and the Bates family was living in Calhoun County, Alabama with their children: Richard Taylor, born in 1867; Mary Josephine, born in 1899; Lon Charles (written as Lorin Charlie), born in 1901; John Ortray, born in 1905; and Elbert Rodyurt, born in 1908.
Uncle Elbert visited my grandparents from time to time. He was married to a red-headed lady named Bonnie who worked once or twice as a movie extra. I thought they were extravagant and fancy because of her stylish red hair and because they lived in California.
Ollie and Estelle were living with their daughter, my aunt Lois, on Wright Row in Rome, Georgia with John Bates, the son of my grandfather’s brother, Lon Charles Bates. Granddaddy was working in a brickyard. Bigmama was working at the Rome Hosiery Mill. Their oldest daughter, Nellie, was born May 23, 1923, and lived only a few months before succumbing to bronchial pneumonia on Feb. 8, 1924, just one day after Bigmama’s 17th birthday.
By 1940, Granddaddy was working as molder for the Rome Stove and Range Company. Bigmama always called it the stove foundry. They lived on Reynolds Bend Road in Floyd County with their young family: Lois, 11, Louise, my mama, 8; Erskine, 6; and the twins, Bessie 3; and Essie 3. There were several stove foundries in Rome at the time, and he kept that job for several years. He was still working in the foundry in 1952, according to the City Directory.
Living next door in 1940 was Bigmama’s daddy, Gardner Chesterfield Hutchins. He was 64. Bigmama’s sister, Julie, we always called her “Dude,” lived with him. She was 23, along with Uncle Newt, 26, who also worked as a molder at the foundry. Dorothy, 22, Uncle Newt’s wife, also lived there with their son Everett Joe, 3; and daughter, Martha, who was 1.
A year or so after the Census taker came through, America entered the second World War II, and Ollie registered for the draft on Feb. 16, 1944, just 19 months before the war ended. Ollie never had to answer the call of duty, and he was not the only Bates grandfather to miss a major war or battle.
Leonidas Bates Jr.
During World War I, more than 70 million soldiers and military support workers fought on fronts that spanned Europe, Africa, the Middle East, the Pacific Islands and China. America entered the war on April 6, 1917, and quickly began drafting soldiers. Leonidas “Lon” Bates, my great-grandfather, registered for the draft on Sept. 12, 1918, just two months before the war ended. He was 44 years old and a father of six, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t fight if needed.
Luckily the war ended on Nov. 11, 1918. Lon Bates didn’t have to serve.
Leonidas Bates was a tall man with black hair and dark blue eyes. He was born August 22, 1874, in Tennessee, about a decade after the end of the Civil War, a time when America was still living in conflict. Henry Ward Beecher, a minister and social reformer, was on trial for adultery in New York City. The Osage tribe declared war on Kansas, and Kentucky was the scene of racial tension.
In 1880, five-year-old Leonidas was the youngest of five Bates kids living with their mother, Mary, who was 33, in McMinn County, Tennessee. Taylor, 14, worked in the tanyard; sister Margaret was 13; Lula was 10 and Etta was 8.
Seventeen-year-old Leonidas married 20-yearold Mattie Almaroad on August 9, 1892. He signed the marriage certificate Lon Bates. By 1910 Lon and Mattie had filled their home with six children and moved to Calhoun County, Alabama. Eight years later, when he registered for Selective Service, they had moved to Polk County, Georgia.
By 1920, Lon and Mattie were living in Polk County Georgia, with their sons, Lon, Ollie, John and Elbert, and by 1930, they were living with his son, my granddaddy, Bigmama and my aunt Lois.
Luckily the war ended on Nov. 11, 1918. Lon Bates didn’t have to serve.
Leonidas Bates was a tall man with black hair and dark blue eyes. He was born August 22, 1874, in Tennessee, about a decade after the end of the Civil War, a time when America was still living in conflict. Henry Ward Beecher, a minister and social reformer, was on trial for adultery in New York City. The Osage tribe declared war on Kansas, and Kentucky was the scene of racial tension.
In 1880, five-year-old Leonidas was the youngest of five Bates kids living with their mother, Mary, who was 33, in McMinn County, Tennessee. Taylor, 14, worked in the tanyard; sister Margaret was 13; Lula was 10 and Etta was 8.
Seventeen-year-old Leonidas married 20-yearold Mattie Almaroad on August 9, 1892. He signed the marriage certificate Lon Bates. By 1910 Lon and Mattie had filled their home with six children and moved to Calhoun County, Alabama. Eight years later, when he registered for Selective Service, they had moved to Polk County, Georgia.
By 1920, Lon and Mattie were living in Polk County Georgia, with their sons, Lon, Ollie, John and Elbert, and by 1930, they were living with his son, my granddaddy, Bigmama and my aunt Lois.
Leonidas Bates Sr.
Leonidas was a popular name for three generations of Bates men. My great-great grandfather was the first. Leonidas Bates was the son of John Augustus and Margaret Lou Cunningham Bates. He was born in 1841 in North Carolina, and married Mary McNabb during the Civil War, sometime between 1860 and 1864. There are no marriage records of their marriage. The Bates family had moved to Murphy, North Carolina, and the courthouse at Murphy was destroyed by fire on April 26, 1865 by a company of some 50 men claiming to be Federal soldiers. All the marriage records of the county were burned.
By 1870 Leonidas and Mary had three children, Taylor, born around 1865; Margaret, born around 1867; and Mary, born around 1869. Leonidas and Mary had one more child, Leonidas Jr., born August 22, 1874. This last child, Leonidas Bates Jr., is my great-grandfather.
By 1870 Leonidas and Mary had three children, Taylor, born around 1865; Margaret, born around 1867; and Mary, born around 1869. Leonidas and Mary had one more child, Leonidas Jr., born August 22, 1874. This last child, Leonidas Bates Jr., is my great-grandfather.
John Augustus Bates
Just as my Ollie and Leonidas Jr., missed out on war, John Augustus Bates, my 3rd great-grandfather on my mama’s side, also had a narrow miss. His close call came 100 years earlier than Lon’s close call.
Augustus was born in Rutherford County, North Carolina in 1796. America was still a young country, having just gained its independence 13 years earlier, and conflicts continued.
We know that Augustus volunteered to fight and was called into duty from his wife’s application for a widow’s war pension. Margaret Lou Cunningham Bates testified that her husband, John Augustus, served as a private in Capt. Oliver’s Company of the North Carolina militia.
In 1812 America was again fighting with the British in the war that inspired Francis Scott Key to write the Star-Spangled Banner. The battles raged in different fronts across the states, and while North Carolina was not a center of battle, the men of the state volunteered to fight.
The 1814 muster of the 7th Regiment, third company of the 1st Rutherford Regiment of the North Carolina Militia lists Wade Bates as a solider. He is the only Bates listed. It’s not uncommon for names to be written incorrectly or on the wrong line. We do know that there was only one Bates on any of the Rutherford muster rolls.
Augustus was among the last of the North Carolina militiamen called into service for the War of 1812 for a mission that never happened. The War of 1812 ended when the Treaty of Ghent was signed on Christmas Eve 1814. But this was a time when there was no internet, television or radio. News of the treaty traveled slowly and Major General Thomas Pinckney requested a North Carolina Regiment to march to the defense of the Southern Frontier of the Sixth Military District in Mississippi. Augustus and his fellow soldiers set out on a march to Wadesboro in Anson County. Meanwhile, General Andrew Jackson defeated a British army at the Battle of New Orleans on January 8, 1815. Not long afterward, Augustus and his fellow soldiers in Wadesboro were sent home without ever firing a shot in a war that had already ended.
After the war, Augustus and Margaret started their family. They had 13 children, Samuel, born in 1820; Elizabeth Ann, born in 1822; Margaret D., born in 1824; William, born in 1827; Mary Ann, born in 1832; Marcus Lafayette, born in 1834; Clarinda, born in 1835, Clarence, born in 1837; Salina, born in 1838; and Noah, born in 1839; Leonidas, my 2nd great-grandfather, born in 1841; James M., born in 1843 and Julius Pinkney, born in 1846.
Augustus was born in Rutherford County, North Carolina in 1796. America was still a young country, having just gained its independence 13 years earlier, and conflicts continued.
We know that Augustus volunteered to fight and was called into duty from his wife’s application for a widow’s war pension. Margaret Lou Cunningham Bates testified that her husband, John Augustus, served as a private in Capt. Oliver’s Company of the North Carolina militia.
In 1812 America was again fighting with the British in the war that inspired Francis Scott Key to write the Star-Spangled Banner. The battles raged in different fronts across the states, and while North Carolina was not a center of battle, the men of the state volunteered to fight.
The 1814 muster of the 7th Regiment, third company of the 1st Rutherford Regiment of the North Carolina Militia lists Wade Bates as a solider. He is the only Bates listed. It’s not uncommon for names to be written incorrectly or on the wrong line. We do know that there was only one Bates on any of the Rutherford muster rolls.
Augustus was among the last of the North Carolina militiamen called into service for the War of 1812 for a mission that never happened. The War of 1812 ended when the Treaty of Ghent was signed on Christmas Eve 1814. But this was a time when there was no internet, television or radio. News of the treaty traveled slowly and Major General Thomas Pinckney requested a North Carolina Regiment to march to the defense of the Southern Frontier of the Sixth Military District in Mississippi. Augustus and his fellow soldiers set out on a march to Wadesboro in Anson County. Meanwhile, General Andrew Jackson defeated a British army at the Battle of New Orleans on January 8, 1815. Not long afterward, Augustus and his fellow soldiers in Wadesboro were sent home without ever firing a shot in a war that had already ended.
After the war, Augustus and Margaret started their family. They had 13 children, Samuel, born in 1820; Elizabeth Ann, born in 1822; Margaret D., born in 1824; William, born in 1827; Mary Ann, born in 1832; Marcus Lafayette, born in 1834; Clarinda, born in 1835, Clarence, born in 1837; Salina, born in 1838; and Noah, born in 1839; Leonidas, my 2nd great-grandfather, born in 1841; James M., born in 1843 and Julius Pinkney, born in 1846.
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