Santa
Clara County
Biographies
CHARLES
O. GATES, M.D.
CHARLES
O. GATES, M.D. In California as
elsewhere the medical profession is well represented, and Dr. Gates is
included among the rising young physicians of Santa Clara county,
having come to Mountainview in 1895 to practice his
profession. He was born in Juneau, Wis.,
June 23, 1865, and has every claim to longevity, as the following brief
perusal of the lives of his ancestors will show. His paternal grandfather, Obed Gates, was
born in New York state and followed farm pursuits
during his active years. He left his
native state at an early day, going to Wisconsin, where he became a pioneer
settler and was one of the first white men to settle there. He followed agricultural pursuits in Dodge county for many years, and finally died at a ripe old age,
at the home of one of his sons in Jefferson county.
The father of Mr. Gates,
Freeman Gates, also a native of the Empire state, while a young man went to
live in Wisconsin, where he prospered as a farmer and a manufacturer of butter
and cheese. He became a man of consequence in Dodge county and was twice elected sheriff of that county, also
making a splendid record as supervisor.
About 1890 he came to the Pacific coast, locating at The Willows, Cal.,
where he engaged in fruit ranching. At
his death, which took place in 1901, he had attained the age of seventy-eight
years. By his marriage in Dodge county, Wis., he linked his fortunes with those of Miss Dora
Erdmann, who was born in Germany.
Mrs. Gates came with her parents to the United States and located
in Dodge county, Wis., her father, Charles Erdmann,
following farm pursuits for a livelihood.
He died in 1903, at the extreme age of one hundred and one years. His daughter, Mrs. Gates, passed away at
Mountainview, Cal.
The
eldest child in a family of three children, two sons and one daughter,
Charles O. Gates attended the common schools of Wisconsin, and in 1885
entered Milton College, at Milton, that state, which he attended one year. The following year he entered Kalamazoo
College, continuing his studies for two years at that institution. Having decided upon a professional career he
became a student in the Northwestern University of Chicago, Ill., in 1888, and
studied medicine one year. In 1890 he
came to California and for two years thereafter continued the study of medicine
in Cooper’s College of San Francisco, spending the winter of 1892-93 in the
Kansas City Medical College, from which he graduated in 1893.
Immediately
after graduating he began the practice of his profession in Kansas City,
continuing there as general practitioner for six months. His health not being of the best, he went to
El Paso, Tex., in search of a more healthful place, and for one year practiced
there, and in 1895 he again came to California, locating in Mountainview.
The
marriage of Dr. Gates with Miss Bessie L. Jones, a native of
Wisconsin, occurred in that state. Three
children blessed this union; the eldest died in infancy, and the two others,
daughters, are called Doris and Charlie.
In addition to practicing his profession Dr. Gates is also
interested in fruit culture in partnership with his brother,
Dr. Morris J. Gates, of Campbell.
In fraternal circles he affiliates with the Odd Fellows, the Woodmen of
the World, and politically he adheres to Republican principles.
Transcribed by Donna Toole.
Source: History
of the State of California & Biographical Record of Coast Counties,
California by Prof. J. M. Guinn, A. M., Page 511. The Chapman Publishing
Co., Chicago, 1904.
© 2015 Donna Toole.