George Columbus "Lum" Bates - Honeysuckle Farm, LLC

Albert Bates: Fiddle Player, Photographer, and Farmer

Albert BATES was my maternal great grandfather. I’ve written about him several times. You can find those posts here:
Looking for Land in All the Wrong Places
I Know What You Did That Day
Dettie Louisa GIBSON BATES and the Sibling Melting Pot (Although this one is about Dettie, you will find a photograph of a young Albert BATES included in the post.)
Not Breaking, But Succeeding- Lum’s Apple Orchard (You can find a photo of Albert as a child here.)
Albert was born 1 February 1881 in Hiwasse, Benton County, Arkansas to George and Mary (SEELY) BATES. He was the first of four children- 3 boys and a girl. When Albert was born, the family lived in Hiwasse, Benton County, Arkansas. He was 6 years old before his little brother Charlie came into the world. He was 10 when his brother Herman was born and 13 when his sister Vesta was born. As far as I know, Albert lived in the same area for these first 13 years. Because the 1890 census was destroyed, the first record I’ve found for Albert is the 1900 census. The census enumerator came by the BATES’ home on 5 June 1900. Albert was 19 years old and single. He was living at home with his parents and siblings. He was working as a photographer. This information about his job supports family stories that he worked as an itinerant photographer when he was young. I would absolutely love to have a photograph he took although I’m not sure how I would identify his photographs.
Family stories say that he would travel around, take photographs and play his fiddle at barn dances. It was on one of these “fiddle and photograph” trips that he met his future wife, Dettie Louisa GIBSON. Dettie was living in Dickson Township, Benton County, Arkansas in 1900 so maybe Albert didn’t venture out too far to do his job. My mom and granny used to tell me that after Albert and Dettie met they wrote letters back and forth to each other until they married.
By 1900, photography had been in existence for about 60-70 years or so. Even so, in the early 1900’s photographers were still trying to legitimize photography as an art form. Also in 1900, the Kodak Brownie camera was finally reaching the middle class in America. Kodak had been a brand name for 13 years and the x-ray was only 5 years old. Tintypes were still prevalent in those days and along with developing tintypes came the use of extremely hazardous chemicals like mercury chloride. I don’t know what types of photos Albert took nor do I know if he would have had to use mercury chloride but the possibility was there.

ca. 1900 photographer (not Albert) with a folding plate camera; photo found at Antiquecameras.net.
Now back to that fiddle…I wish I had a picture of it. Sadly, I don’t. Like I said before, Albert played at barn dances. The purpose of a barn dance was to get people together and have fun dancing, of course! It was a social gathering for people in the community. A way to spend the evening with friends and meet new people. Just like dances of today. The Library of Congress website has a great page where you can listen to old fiddle songs being played. Here is one from their page:
Arkansas Traveler
I definitely recommend you take some time and visit their site and listen to a few of the songs. Close your eyes and imagine them there- Albert playing, Dettie dancing. And then, maybe, let someone else take over the fiddle playing and imagine them dancing together. Two people, falling in love, before you were ever even a thought in someone’s mind. I think that’s where I want to leave my great grandparents today. Dancing the night away in someone’s Arkansas barn, just happy to spend a little time together, long before I was ever a thought in their minds.
Love,
Lisa @ Days of Our Lives blog

Sources:
Britannica.com
Khanacademy.org
Softschools.com
Edinphoto.org.uk

Happy Anniversary, Lum and Mary

Today’s blog post is about George Columbus BATES and Mary Ann SEELY, my maternal 2nd great grandparents. They were married on this date (13 January) in 1880. If you’d like to review what I’ve already written about George, you can find posts about George’s apple orchard here and I mentioned George in this post, too.

1860-1869

George Columbus BATES was born in December of 1856 in Dalton, Whitfield County, Georgia, to John C. and Mary Jane (MOBLEY) BATES. George went by a shortened form of his middle name- Lum – and that’s how I’ll be referring to him here in this blog post. By 1860 (4 years after Lum’s birth) he was living with his family in Fancy Hill, 1013th Georgia Militia District in Murray County, Georgia. Hiram GARRETT (possibly SARRETT) was the census enumerator that year and he came by the family home on a Wednesday- 1 August 1860. Lum would have still been a few months shy of his 4th birthday at that time but he is enumerated as 4 years old in the census. His father, John, was a farmer. John valued his real estate at $800 and his personal estate at $1000. These amounts were about “middle of the pack” in comparison the other families censused on the same page.
In 1860, Lum’s older brother, Greenberry BATES was living with the family. Green was 18 years old and was a farm laborer. Just a few years later Green would be serving in the Civil War for the Confederacy.
Mary was born on Sunday, 6 June 1858 in Lawrence County, Missouri, to Charles and Synthia (FOSTER) SEELY. In 1860 Mary and her family were living in Mount Pleasant, Mount Pleasant Township, Lawrence County, Missouri. Their census enumerator that year was John W. PAYNE who came to enumerate the family on Saturday, 16 June 1860. Mary was 2 years old at the time. Living in the home were Mary’s parents plus four of her older siblings including Elijah, William, James, and John. In addition to these older siblings, she had an older brother who died as an infant. His name was George. In the years to come, Mary would help welcome two younger siblings- Elzora Josephine and Charles Harvey. Mary was living right next door to her maternal grandparents, Frederick and Mary (BURNETT) FOSTER. Mary’s dad was a farmer. Charles valued his real estate at $400 and his personal estate at $700. These values were toward the lower end of the spectrum in comparison to the families censused on the same page as Charles.

1863: A Difficult Year

In July of 1863, Lum was 6 years old. That year both his dad and his older brother were fighting for the Confederacy in the Civil War. John (his dad) was fighting at Tullahoma, Tennessee when he was taken prisoner and transported to Rock Island. Rock Island was the Yankee version of Andersonville Prison. It wasn’t a place you wanted to go. In July of 1863 John died. I blogged a little about John’s military service and death here and my cousin did a guest blog post for us here.
Lum’s brother, Green, was taken as a prisoner of war at Missionary Ridge in November of 1863. He was initially sent to Rock Island but was transferred to a different military prison a couple of weeks after his capture. Green survived the war. I’m sure it was a pretty rough year for the whole family. If you want to read more about Rock Island and our part in the Civil War you can follow the links above that discuss John’s service. You can view the Missionary Ridge battlefield here. You can view a dramatic skit that explains the Tullahoma Campaign here. I also recommend Wikipedia for a brief, to-the-point overview of any topic.
Other known siblings of Lum’s were an older sister Martha, an older brother Washington who I think died in 1860, and a younger brother Henry Franklin who wasn’t yet born in 1860. In 1868, Lum’s mom got married again. This time she married Paul E. BRINEGAR.
Side note:
The best I could tell, this was the location of John and Mary (MOBLEY) BATES’ homestead in Georgia. They had a nice view of the mountain.

1870-1879

On Tuesday, 26 July 1870, census enumerator Robert M. ROMBERT visited the BATES family. By this time Lum’s dad, John, had died as a prisoner of war at Rock Island prison and Lum’s mom had remarried to Paul E. BRINEGAR. The family consisted of stepdad Paul E. BRINEGAR, mom Mary J. (MOBLEY) BRINEGAR, younger half brother Franklin (later enumerated as ‘Henry’). In 1870, Paul was farming and he valued his real estate at $850 and his personal estate at $200. If I were to judge based on the information given by other respondents on the page, Paul was in the middle of the pack as far as money and possessions owned by the people in his area. Mary Jane was “keeping house” as were the majority of women that I’ve encountered on older census records. Lum was a farm laborer. Franklin was only 2 years old. He was not working or in school.
On Thursday, 23 June 1870 enumerator John H. STROUD visited the SEELY family. Parents Charles and Sinthia were living in Bentonville, Osage Township, Benton County, Arkansas with their children, James, John, Mary, Elzora, and Charles. The elder Charles was a farmer and valued his real estate at $500 and his personal estate at $250. If I were to judge based on the information given by other respondents on the same page, Charles more well off than most of the people around him. Sinthia was keeping house. Despite their ages, the older children (ages 20 and 17) were not working – or at least no occupation was listed by the census enumerator.

1880

Sometime between 26 July 1870 and 28 June 1880, Lum and Mary met each other and fell in love. I wish I had stories to tell you either from records or family stories passed down through the years. Sadly I don’t, so we’ll skip right to the month of the wedding.
On Wednesday, 7 January 1880 it was warmer than usual in Benton County, Arkansas. The weather was described as “too warm for overcoats and fires”. (Arkansas Democrat, 7 Jan 1880) That was the day that the license was issued for George Columbus BATES and Mary Ann SEELY to marry. The wedding didn’t happen until Tuesday, 13 January 1880. By then, it was “decidedly cooler”. (Arkansas Democrat, 14 Jan 1880) Lum (George) was 21 years old according to the marriage license although other official documents have put him at age 24 at the time of his marriage. (My personal belief is 24 years old.) Mary was 20 years old according to the marriage license.
The first record I have that was dated after the wedding is the 1880 Federal Census. On the Monday, 28 June or Tuesday, 29 June 1880, census enumerator John M. CLAYTON arrived at the newly-married couple’s home. They were living in Dickson Township, Benton County, Arkansas. He was listed as being 23 years old and she as being 22. They lived next door to Lum’s now-widowed mother, Mary and Lum’s half brother who is now listed as Henry. Living on the other side of Mary was her older son Berry, now married and with his own large family. Lum was farming and Mary was keeping house.

A Good Stopping Point

If you work on your own family history then you know that most of the 1890 census was destroyed. So, unfortunately it’s hard to know what Lum and Mary did in the 20 years between the 1880 and 1900 censuses. One thing I do know they did was have babies. Starting with Albert (my great-grandfather) in 1881 and continuing with Charles in 1887, Herman in 1891, and Vesta in 1894.
It is at this point that I’m going to stop their story. I’ll finish it during the year in other blog posts about Lum and Mary as I celebrate their births and write about their deaths.
Until then,
Lisa @ Days of Our Lives blog

Not Breaking, But Succeeding- Lum’s Apple Orchard

Come, Let us Watch and Walk

I’ve talked before about my 2^nd great grandpa, George Columbus BATES, but not in much detail. George went by “Lum”, just like my grandfather Troy Columbus BATES did.

Photo of Lum and Mary Seely Bates with their 3 youngest children Charlie, Herman, and Vesta.
Lum had an apple orchard when he filed his homestead land entry paperwork. David COOPER and William T. LUCAS- a couple of his neighbors- were witnesses for Lum saying that Lum’s land was “rough timber land”.

Photo of David and Nancy COOPER. David COOPER was a farmer and ran a mill near Hiwasse, Benton County, Arkansas. He also had a supply store on the bank of the river there. He later became Superintendent of Schools for the Hiwasse/Dug Hill area.

The witnesses stated Lum settled on his acreage “in the latter part of September or first of October 1896” (Mr. COOPER) and “on or about October 1^st 1896” (Mr. LUCAS). They testified that Lum had resided continuously on the land since he first got it and that he had not been absent from the property since he first made homestead. When the men were asked how much of the homestead Lum had cultivated and for how many seasons Lum had raised crops on the land, Mr. COOPER said, “It would average about 8 or 9 acres for 7 years” and Mr. LUCAS said, “He has cultivated 7 acres for 7 seasons”. Mr. COOPER gave details about the improvements Lum had made to the property saying, “1 box house, 3 rooms. 1 log house, 1 smoke house, 1 cistern, small orchard, perhaps 100 trees- $300”. Mr. LUCAS gave the following details about improvements Lum made, “1 3-room box dwelling, 1 smoke house, 1 log house, about 13 acres in cultivation, small orchard, 1 cistern, 1 chicken house- $300.”

Example of a corn crib from Homesteader Wannabe blog.

Example of a late 1800’s smoke house from Smoking Meat Forums.

Example of a circa 1900 log house from Discovering Russellville Arkansas blog. I imagine the “3-room box dwelling” looked very similar to this building.

Example of a large cistern under construction from Wisconsin Historical Society blog.

Example of a circa 1900 chicken house (with modern updates) from Leelanau Conservancy blog.
Mr. Cooper said the land was more valuable for “agriculture” and Mr. Lucas added it was more valuable for “orchard”. Both men testified that Lum had not mortgaged, sold, or contracted to sell any portion of the homestead land. Both men testified that they were not personally interested in Lum’s claim and that they believed Lum had acted in good faith in perfecting the homestead land entry requirements. There were additional witnesses- H. N. WILLIAMS and J. E. FERRELL, both of Hiwasse, Arkansas. Their testimony was not included in the file I received.

We Had Long Collected, Saved, and Harbored Old Memories

In Lum’s testimony he stated he was 46 years old and lived in Hiwasse, Arkansas. He stated he was born in the state of Georgia.

Lum’s birth certificate.
He stated he was the same George C. BATES who had made homestead entry #22919 at the Harrison, Arkansas land office on 17 September 1896 and a true description of his land was “NE quarter of the NE quarter of Section 32, Township 21N, Range 31W”. He stated he built a house on the land and established residence there about 1 October 1896 and had built a 3-room box house with 1 room being 15×16 and 1 room being 14×15 and the third room being 12×14. He stated he had built a log house sized 16×16, 1 smoke house, 1 crib, and 1 cistern. He had 13 acres in cultivation, 100 apple trees set, and an estimated value of $250 for his improvements. I must say, I’d love to have all these improvements for $250!!
Lum listed his family members living on the property as himself, his wife, and 3 children. His wife was Mary Ann SEELY BATES.

Marriage record for Lum and Mary BATES.
On 28 August 1903, the children that would have been living at home would have been the 3 youngest children- Charles Leroy, Herman Luther, and Vesta Josephine. The oldest child (my great-grandfather), Albert Lewis, had gotten married and moved out the previous year.

Another Season’s Hundred Days of Toil

Prior to completing the application process, Lum had to run a notice about the homestead claim in the Benton County Democrat weekly newspaper for 6 consecutive weeks.

Newspaper ad photo.

By Not Breaking, But Succeeding

And so, for the sum of $6 (plus a $1 “testimony fee” for his required testimony- gotta love the government, right?!) he completed his homestead application process for 40 acres in Benton County, Arkansas on 28 August 1903. The homestead was finally approved on 16 June 1904 and patented on 26 August 1904 and just like that Lum was the proud owner of 40 acres in Benton County, Arkansas.

Photo of certificate
On a day when I have more bandwidth or faster internet I will post a photo of where his land was in Benton County, Arkansas.

Silently Growing to Bear Fruit

About the time Lum started his apple orchard, the Arkansas Black apple was being cultivated. So in mine and my husband’s orchard, we planted an Arkansas Black in memory of Lum. It’s producing apples this year and we’re excited to be able to taste them. Maybe I’ll make an apple pie in honor of Lum and Mary and all they did and all they sacrificed to give me the life I have today.
By the way, I’ve been making plans to visit a distant cousin from the BATES family. I’m meeting with her soon and she says she has a photo of Lum standing in front of a wagon full of apples. I’m so hoping she can find it and bring it so I can have a copy. What a treasure! I think I’ll frame it and hang it in my kitchen. I sure am looking forward to apple season…
Until then though, take care of yourself and remember- an apple a day keeps the doctor away!
Lisa @ Days of Our Lives

Tag: George Columbus “Lum” Bates