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Below is a family biography included in Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Polk County, Arkansas published by Southern Publishing Company in 1891.  These biographies are valuable for genealogy research in discovering missing ancestors or filling in the details of a family tree. Family biographies often include far more information than can be found in a census record or obituary.  Details will vary with each biography but will often include the date and place of birth, parent names including mothers' maiden name, name of wife including maiden name, her parents' names, name of children (including spouses if married), former places of residence, occupation details, military service, church and social organization affiliations, and more.  There are often ancestry details included that cannot be found in any other type of genealogical record.

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Dr. John Wesley Bates is a man of influence throughout Polk County, Ark., and as a farmer, no less than as a physician, he has obtained a reputation placing him in the front rank of the men of this section. He was born in Pendleton District, S. C., in 1828, to W. M. F. and Mary (Whisnand) Bates, they being born, reared and married in South Carolina, moving, when the subject of this sketch was about four years of age, to Cherokee County, Ga., and in 1852 to Polk County, Ark., where they spent the rest of their days, the father passing from life about 1882 and the mother two years later, both members of the Primitive Baptist Church, in which the former was a minister for perhaps, forty years. He was a well-posted, self-made man, and helped to organize some of the pioneer churches of Polk County, doing a noble work in that cause. His father, Stephen Bates, was born on the Potomac River in Virginia, but lived a great many years in South Carolina, moving, during the latter part of his life, to Georgia, where he died about 1848, a farmer and distiller by occupation. He was a soldier in the Revolutionary War for a short time, and was of English descent. Dr. John Wesley Bates was the second of nine children, and in his youth was reared on a farm receiving but little schooling. In 1852 he was married to Mary, daughter of James and Mary Baker, who died in Mississippi. Mrs. Bates was born in Georgia, and of the nine children she has borne her husband, one son and five daughters are living. Soon after his marriage Dr. Bates came to Polk County, and has since been a resident of his present farm of 420 acres, of which about 150 acres are cleared, near the head of Big Fork, all of which property has been obtained by his own efforts. When a young man he studied medicine with an uncle, Dr. John R. Bates, of Georgia, for some time, and for forty years has practiced more or less, with success. During the seventies he served four years as coroner of Polk County.

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This family biography is one of 32 biographies included in Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Polk County, Arkansas published in 1891.  For the complete description, click here: Polk County, Arkansas History, Genealogy, and Maps

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