History of Michigan, / by Charles Moore. [Vol. 3]

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HISTORY OF MICHIGAN

the university he was for about a year a representative in Detroit of the
publishing house of James R. Osgood & Company of Boston. His study
of law began in the fall of 1871 in the offices of Newberry, Pond &
Brown, and was continued with another well-known Detroit law firm
of that time, Meddaugh & Driggs.
Since his admission to the Michigan bar in I874, Mr. Bates has had
a continuous practice at Detroit, and since the first few years has enjoyed a business that has been both profitable and of more than representative character. His hard-working ability, his conscientious devotion
to the interests of his clients, and his special skill in handling complicated
cases has long been recognized and has brought him many distinctive
and worthy honors in the profession.
Outside a period of service as estimator at large for Detroit, Mr.
Bates has never held public office. However, he has long been one of
the influential workers in the Republican party of the state, and has
served as a delegate to many state conventions. Before the convention
at Grand Rapids in 1894 his name was presented as candidate for attorney
general, but he subsequently withdrew in favor of another candidate.
Mr. Bates has membership in the Detroit and Michigan Bar Associations,
of the American Bar Association, has taken thirty-two degrees in Scottish Rite Masonry and is a member of Michigan Sovereign Consistory,
and in the York Rite is affiliated with Oriental Lodge No. 240, A. F.
& A. M., King Cyrus Chapter No. I33, R. A. M., and Monroe Council
No. I, Royal and Select Masons. His own distinguished ancestry has
caused Mr. Bates to take great interest in organizations of colonial and
early American character, and he has served as treasurer and registrar
of the Michigan Society of the Sons of the American Revolution, as
Historian General of the national organization and one of its vice president-generals, and for many years has attended as a delegate the national
congresses of the Sons of the American Revolution. Mr. Bates is also a
member of the New England Society. His interest in American history
is indicated by his former service as president of the Detroit Archaeological Society and as councilor of the American Institute of Archaeology
and of the American Historical Association. Among other social and
civic organizations to which he belongs are the University Club of Detroit,
the Bloomfield Hills Country Club, the Alumni Association of the University of Michigan, and his church is the First Presbyterian.
On April 26, 1887, Mr. Bates was married to Miss Jennie Marie
Fowler, daughter of the late Richard Essyltyne Fowler, of Clayton, New
York. Their two children are: Stanley Fowler Bates, a graduate of
Cornell University, class of I9II; and Virginia Williams Bates.
FRANK H. MATHER. Among those men of Jackson who have identified themselves with the big interests of the city may be mentioned Frank
H. Mather, secretary-treasurer and manager of the Central City Lumber
Company, with which concern he has been affiliated since I9II. Though
a young man in years, Mr. Mather has already had a wide business experience that has fitted him for his present position, and he is reckoned
among the foremost business men of the city of Jackson today.
Mr. Mather was born on a Calhoun county farm, twelve miles south
of Battle Creek, in Leroy township, on April 2, I883. He, is a son of
David and Henriette (Miller) Mather. The father was a farmer much
of his life. He was born in Niagara county, New York, and came to
Michigan in young manhood, spending the rest of his life in Calhoun
county. In his later years he devoted himself to the lumber and grain
business, in which he was quite successful, and he died on January 22,
1913. The mother still lives, and is a resident of Marshall, Michigan.
They had one other son, Charles M. Mather, who is likewise engaged in