Yolo
County
Biographies
WALTER EARNEST BATES,
M.D.
Since
inaugurating his professional practice in Davisville in 1887 Dr. W. E. Bates
has become substantially identified with the advance in medical and surgical
science in Yolo county, his wide experience, appreciation of the highest tenets
of his calling, and advanced ideas on sanitation and general conditions making
him an acquisition whose influence and opinion must needs carry great weight.
Besides conducting a general practice in Davisville and vicinity Dr.
Bates holds official positions in the state, including those of President of
the Yolo County Board of Health, District Surgeon of the Southern Pacific Railroad
Company, President of the Yolo County Medical Society, is a member of the State
Medical Society, and ex-President of the California Northern District Medical
Society. He is also president of the Davisville Chamber of Commerce.
He was born July 3, 1860, in Chattanooga, Tenn., and his early
professional life was closely interwoven with that of his father, Cicero M.
Bates, M.D., for many years one of the foremost physicians and surgeons of San
Francisco.
Cicero M. Bates, M. D., was born on a farm in a bend of the Ohio river in East Tennessee, August 15, 1831, a son of Ezekiel
Bates, a large land owner of East Tennessee, and some of whose relatives served
in the Revolutionary war. The family was established in America by three
brothers who came from England in the ship Elizabeth, which touched at the port
of Boston, Mass., April 6, 1635. Of these three brothers, by name
Clement, Edward and James, one settled in Virginia, from which branch of the
family Dr. Bates is descended. In early life Cicero M. Bates married Narcissa Virginia Earnest, a native of East Tennessee, born
February 20, 1836. He received his professional training at the
University of Pennsylvania, graduating from the medical department in the class
of 1855. After practicing for five years in Cleveland, Tenn., in 1860 he
came to California via the Isthmus, locating in Nevada City, Nevada county, where he practiced in the mines until settling in
San Francisco in 1869. He had both ability and determination, and soon
made his influence felt in the rapidly growing city. He was the first
Health Officer of San Francisco, and after serving four years was elected to
the chair of Clinical Medicine at the University of California. While
thus employed for eleven years, he was a prominent factor in professional
circles in general, serving as Visiting Physician to the City and County
Hospital and the Hebrew Orphan Asylum, being also a member of the Board of
Lunacy of San Francisco. His health failing under too strenuous
professional service he abandoned practice and purchased Highland Springs in
Lake county, which he improved and which under his
painstaking management became a popular place of resort. In 1888 he
removed to Fresno county, where the remainder of his
life was spent, his death occurring November 18, 1896. He was well known
in Masonic circles, and had taken the thirty-second degree. In political
affiliation he was a Democrat. Besides his son Walter E., who is the
second child in order of birth in the family, he had a daughter Kate, now
deceased; Frederick Lee is engaged in Mining in Alaska; and C. M. died in
infancy. While living in San Francisco Mrs. Bates died, April 17, 1892.
Walter E. Bates, M.D., was educated in the public schools of San Francisco and
in 1881 graduated from the Medical Department of the University of California.
Forthwith he stepped into practice with his father, and when the health
of the latter began to fail, succeeded to his many patients. Soon
afterward he became Assistant Superintendent of the City and County Hospital of
San Francisco, and two years later was appointed Surgeon on board a steamer in
the Occident & Oriental line, sailing to China, and making two trips.
He was then appointed Superintendent of St. Luke’s Hospital for two
years, and in October, 1887, moved to Davisville, succeeding to the practice of
Dr. A. C. Collins. In 1896 he took a post-graduate course at the College
of Physicians and Surgeons in New York city, and
through the medium of conventions and periodicals keeps abreast of the times to
an extent not exceeded by any member of the profession in northern California.
In
Oakland, Cal., Dr. Bates was united in marriage with Eudora T. Hart, April 18,
1886, Mrs. Bates being a daughter of Jackson Hart, formerly a commission
merchant of Oakland, and now identified with land interests at Concord, Contra
Costa county. Two children have been born to Dr.
and Mrs. Bates, Athene Frances and Earnestine.
Dr.
Bates is one of the most prominent fraternalists in
this part of the state, and is a member and Past Master of Athens Lodge No.
228, F. & A. M.; Dixon Chapter No. 48, R. A. M.; Yolo Lodge No. 169, I. O.
O. F., in which he has passed all of the chairs, and which he has represented
at the grand lodge; the Eastern Star, Lodge No. 199, of which he is Patron; and
Golden Seal Lodge No. 110, K. P., of Davisville, in which he has also passed
all of the chairs. Dr. Bates is a man of intense religious convictions
and has for years taken a keen interest in the Presbyterian Church, being not
only a member but filling many high offices in the gift of the church. He
is at present an elder in the church, and besides being a delegate to the
general assembly at Winona, Ind., also attended the Presbyterian Synod.
In national politics he is independent, and locally votes for the man
best qualified for the position in question. Dr. Bates stands at the head
of his profession on the coast, and has unbounded faith in its tenets as
disclosed to the intelligent and searching mind. His conclusions have the
merit of independence and individuality, and his diagnosis and treatment tend
to greater simplicity and greater reliance upon the natural forces of mind,
plain living and cheerfulness. He is renowned for his erudition, his
freedom from traditionary trammels and his personal
affability and tact.
Transcribed
by Joyce Rugeroni.
Source:
"History of the
State of California and Biographical Record of the Sacramento Valley, Cal.," J.
M. Guinn, Pages 587-588. The Chapman Publishing Company, Chicago,
1906.
© 2017 Joyce Rugeroni.
Golden
Nugget Library's Yolo County Biographies