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Born: January 25, 1795 Cincinnati, Ohio
(former known as Fort Washington)
Died: July 6, 1876, Indianapolis, Marion, Indiana Buried: Crown Hill Cemetery - different burial date - not sure if this is the correct person The first Sheriff of Marion County, was a native of Cincinnati, Ohio, born in that place when it was called Fort Washington, in the year 1795. His father was "Master of Transportation," during the Indian War, under Generals Wayne and Harmar, and chiefly engaged in forwarding provisions and munitions of war from the frontier posts to the army in the wilderness.
At that time it was an unbroken
wilderness from "Old Fort Washington" (now Cincinnati)
to Detroit, in Michigan Territory.
When Mr. Bates was quite young,
not more than five or six years of age, he lost his
mother; his father married again and he, failing (as
most children do) to find a true one in the person of
the step-mother, left the paternal roof and launched his
bark upon the broad ocean of life, as it were, without
sail or rudder.
At the age of six years he went
to Lebanon, Warren County, Ohio, where he met with
friends and received a fair English education, at least
sufficient to fit and qualify him for the ordinary
pursuits of life at that early day.
About the time that he had
attained his majority he came to Brookville, Franklin
County, where he met with and was married to Miss Sidney
Sedgwick, a cousin of General James Noble, United States
Senator, and the Late Governor Noah Noble, and thus far,
like John Anderson and his worthy spouse, have have
[sic] Glided down the stream of time together. At
Brookville, in 1816, he cast his first vote for a
delegate to form a constitution for the new state of
Indiana.
Soon after Mr. B's marriage he
removed to Connersville, where he remained until
February, 1822, when he came to where this city now
stands.
Jonathan Jennings, who was the
first Governor after the State was admitted into the
Union, had appointed William W. Wick President Judge of
this (the fifth) Judicial District, and Harvey Bates
Sheriff of Marion County, which then embraced several of
the surrounding counties for judicial purposes,
investing Mr. Bates with the power of putting the
necessary legal machinery of the county in motion.
This he did by issuing a
proclamation for an election to be held on the first day
of April for the purpose of electing a clerk of the
court and other county officers, which was the first
election of any kind held in the "new purchase."
At the October election Mr.
Bates was chosen and elected sheriff for the regular
term of two years, after which he refused to be a
candidate again. He did not seem to partake of the love
of office, or had not the taste for public preferment
thas [sic] was peculiar to others hailing from the same
section he did.
After the term of office for
which he was elected expired, he entered into mercantile
and other pursuits more congenial to his feelings. In
all his business enterprises he brought great energy and
industry, which is very nearly always rewarded by
success, as was the case with him. He seemed to think
with Richelieu, and acted upon the principle that "In
the bright lexicon of youth there was no such word as
fail." He possessed in an eminent degree the main
springs to prosperity and success--integrity, industry
and economy--without which but few succeed.
Mr. Bates was the first and for
ten years President of the "Branch of the State Bank,"
located in this place, and no institution of the kind,
either in or out of the State, was more successful, not
only for the bank, but beneficial to the business and
trading part of the community while under his
management. Indeed it was through the help and
assistance of the Bank that most of the surplus produce
of this and several of the adjoining counties was able
to reach a market. I have known that bank to withhold
discounts from our merchants and best business men of
the city that they might be the more able to accommodate
the produce dealers, and thereby assist the farmer, keep
the money in the hands of our own citizens and benefit
the whole country. This wise and judicious course of
the bank, of which he was the principal, was a lasting
benefit to the producers of the county, which should
long be remembered by them.
He was instrumental in getting
up the first insurance company, a stockholder in the
first hotel built by a company, the first railroad that
was finished to this place, the first and only gas light
and coke company, and indeed nearly every public
enterprise of the city.
In 1852 he commenced, and
afterwards finished, that large and palatial hotel, the
"Bates House," at that time one of the finest in the
West. This house was built at a cost of sixty thousand
dollars, subsequent improvements making the whole cost
seventy-five thousand dollars, and could not be built at
this time for much less than double that amount.
There are many other business
and private buildings scattered throughout the city that
own their existence to the energy and means for Mr.
Bates.
He has ever been a liberal
contributor to our religious and benevolent
institutions; was a warm friend of Henry Ward Beecher
during his residence in this city and in his less
prosperous days.
He is now in the seventy-fifth
year of his age, and is yet quite active for one of his
years, retaining a great deal of his youthful vivacity
and sprightliness, and manifests a disposition to make
all bout him feel the same way.
A few months since he and his
estimable lady celebrated the fiftieth anniversary of
their marriage, or "Golden Wedding;" may they live to
celebrate the seventy-fifth, or "Diamond Wedding," is
the sincere wish of their numerous friends and
acquaintances, and "may I be there to see" them, like
John Anderson and his worthy lady.
Nowland, John H. B., “Early Reminiscences of
Indianapolis, with Short Biographical Sketches of
Its Early Citizens, and of a Few of the Prominent
Business Men of the Present Day,” 1870, pp. 138-141.
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