Home County: St. Charles
Term of Service at the Supreme Court of Missouri: January 1862 – February 1865
Judge Barton Bates was born February 29, 1824, in St. Louis, Missouri.[i] After completing his studies at St. Charles College in St. Charles, Missouri,[ii] Bates studied law with his father, Edward Bates, and Hamilton Gamble (later a judge on the Supreme Court of Missouri and governor of the state)[iii] at the office of Gamble & Bates.[iv] On January 15, 1862, Gamble – then Missouri’s governor – appointed Bates to be a judge on the Supreme Court of Missouri.[v] While a member of the Court, Bates served as chief justice.[vi]
Judge Bates was on the election ballot in November 1863, during the height of the nation’s civil war. Missourians’ increased political interest surrounding the war[vii] resulted in the formation of new political groups, called Radical and Conservative Unionists.[viii] Both groups supported Missouri being kept in the Union.[ix] Judge Bates was elected, as a Conservative Union candidate,[x] on November 3, 1863[xi] for a term of six years.[xii] Bates’ term on the Court was cut short, though, when the “Ousting Ordinance” was passed March 17, 1865.[xiii] The Ousting Ordinance required all civil officers, including judges, to vacate their offices by May 1, 1865.[xiv] In early compliance with the Ousting Ordinance, Judge Bates resigned February 1, 1865, from his position with the Supreme Court of Missouri.[xv]
After leaving the Court, Bates was appointed president of the North Missouri Railroad Company in 1867.[xvi] After retiring, he remained in his home town of Dardenne Prairie, Missouri, in St. Charles County, and continued to invest in other business ventures.[xvii] One such project was the James B. Eads Bridge, which still spans the Mississippi River in St. Louis.[xviii]
Judge Barton Bates died December 27, 1892,[xix] in Dardenne Prairie.[xx]
[i] Walter Williams, ed., A History of Northeast Missouri, Volume 1, (Lewis Publishing Company, Chicago, Illinois; New York, New York: 1913), 576.
[ii] Distinguished Biographers, Selected from Each State Revised and Approved by the Most Eminent Historians, Scholars, and Statesmen of the Day, eds. The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography, Volume XII, (James T. White & Company, New York, New York: 1904), 93, accessed on July 18, 2018. Information courtesy of Archive.org, available from https://archive.org
[iii] Gayla Koerting, “Gamble, Hamilton Rowan (1798-1864),” Lawrence O. Christensen, William E. Foley, Gary R. Kremer, and Kenneth H. Winn, eds., Dictionary of Missouri Biography, (Columbia, MO: University of Missouri Press, 1999), 329-330.
[iv] Distinguished Biographers, Selected from Each State Revised and Approved by the Most Eminent Historians, Scholars, and Statesmen of the day, eds. The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography, Volume XII, 93.
[v]Horace W. Fuller, ed., The Green Bag, (The Boston Book Company, Boston, MA: 1891), 158. See also, Michael K. McGrath, Secretary of State, ed., Official Directory of Missouri, (St. Louis, MO: John J. Stationary & Printing Company, 1885), 134. See also: Columbia Statesman Staff, “Supreme Court,” Columbia Statesman, January 24, 1862, page 2, column 3, accessed on July 23, 2018. Information courtesy of Missouri State Historical Society Newspaper Database, available from; http://library.missouri.edu. See also: Charles C. Whittelsey, Reports of Cases Argued and Determined in the Supreme Court of the State of Missouri, Vol. XXXI (St. Louis, MO: George Knapp & Co., 1862), preface.
[vi] Fuller, eds., The Green Bag, 158.
[vii] Fuller, ed., The Green Bag, 159. See also: Liberty Tribune Staff, Liberty Tribune, October 30, 1863, page 2, column 1, accessed on July 18, 2018. Information courtesy of the State Historical Society of Missouri Newspaper Database, available from http://library.missouri.edu See also: William E. Parrish, Charles T. Jones, Jr., Lawrence O. Christensen, Missouri the Heart of the Nation, 3rd ed. (Wheeling, IL: Harlan Davidson, Inc.), 191.
[viii] Parrish, Jones, Jr., and Christensen, Missouri Heart of the Nation, 3rd ed., 191.
[ix] Parrish, Jones, Jr., and Christensen, Missouri Heart of the Nation, 3rd ed., 191.
[x] Liberty Tribune Staff, Liberty Tribune, October 30, 1863. See also: Columbia Statesman Staff, “Supreme Court,” Columbia Statesman, December 4, 1863.
[xi]Fuller, ed., The Green Bag, 159. See also, Michael K. McGrath, Secretary of State, ed., Official Directory of Missouri, (St. Louis, MO: John J. Stationary & Printing Company, 1885), 134. See also, Charles C. Whittelsey, Reporter, Reports of Cases Argued and Determined in the Supreme Court of the State of Missouri, Vol. XXXV (St. Louis, MO: George Knapp & Co., Publishers, 1865), iv.
[xii] Columbia Statesman Staff, “Supreme Court,” Columbia Statesman, December 4, 1863, page 2, column 1, accessed on July 18, 2018. Information courtesy of the Missouri State Historical Society Newspaper Database, available from; http://library.missouri.edu.
[xiii] Jefferson City State Times Staff, “C.D. Drake Sustains Gov. Fletcher,” Jefferson City State Times, July 7, 1865, page 2, column 2, accessed on July 18, 2018. Information courtesy of State Historical Society of Missouri Newspaper Database, available from http://library.missouri.edu
[xiv] Parrish, Jones, Jr., Christensen, Missouri: The Heart of the Nation, 3rd ed., 200-201.See also: Fuller, ed., The Green Bag, 159.
[xv] Fuller, ed., The Green Bag, 159. See also: [xv] Michael K. McGrath, Secretary of State, ed., Official Directory of Missouri, (St. Louis, MO: John J. Stationary & Printing Company, 1885), 134. See also: Charles C. Whittelsey, Reporter, Reports of Cases Argued and Determined in the Supreme Court of the State of Missouri, Vol. XXXV (St. Louis, MO: George Knapp & Co., Publishers, 1865), iv.
[xvi] Columbia Statesman Staff, “N.M.R.R-Judge Barton Bates,” Columbia Statesman, November 8, 1867, page 2, column 1. Information courtesy of State Historical Society of Missouri Newspaper Database, accessed on July 23, 2018, available from http://shsmo.org. See also: Distinguished Biographers, Selected from Each State Revised and Approved by the Most Eminent Historians, Scholars, and Statesmen of the day, eds. The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography, Volume XII, 93.
[xvii] Distinguished biographers, Selected from Each State Revised and Approved by the Most Eminent Historians, Scholars, and Statesmen of the Day, eds. The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography, Volume XII, 93.
[xviii] Williams, ed. A History of Northeast Missouri, Volume 1, 577. See also: Distinguished Biographers, Selected from Each State Revised and Approved by the Most Eminent Historians, Scholars, and Statesmen of the day, eds. The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography, Volume XII, 93.
[xix] Williams, ed. A History of Northeast Missouri, Volume 1, 577.
[xx] Williams, ed. A History of Northeast Missouri, Volume 1, 577.
Biographical information authored by Ms. Megan Vancil, 2018, University of Missouri-Columbia.