Member Biography

Samuel Davis Bates 

Member
Sessions Office Position District Party
1889-1890       27 Republican
1891-1892       27 Republican

Biography

11/15/1833 - 12/28/1906


Samuel Davis Bates (R27) Northumberland, Snyder, Union Counties 1889-1892

Early Life: 

Samuel Davis Bates, born November 15, 1833, Springfield, Windsor County, Vermont; educated, Troy Academy, New York; machinist; relocated, Union County, Pennsylvania; employed by Slifer, Walls, and Shriner Manufacturing; superintendent, Central Manufacturing Company, Lewisburg; Lewisburg school director; Lewisburg town council; lieutenant, Civil War 1862-1863; board of directors, Lewisburg Nail Works, Lewisburg Bridge Company, and  Central Manufacturing Company; superintendent, Lewisburg Waterworks; married, first wife, Mary Bates, d.1871, married, second wife, Mary Agusta Wolfe Bates; elected, Republican, Pennsylvania State Senate, 1889-1892; died, asthma attack, December 28, 1906 (aged 73) Lewisburg, Union County, Pennsylvania, interment Lewisburg Cemetery, Lewisburg, Union County, Pennsylvania.

Early Career:

Lieutenant, 1862 Emergency Militia, Third Regiment; lieutenant, 28th Regiment, 1863, Emergency Militia

Professional titles; business ownership; board memberships; local government; club memberships:

Member, Methodist Church; member, board directors, Lewisburg Nail Works, Lewisburg Bridge Company Central Manufacturing Company; superintendent, Lewisburg Water Works.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  .

Pennsylvania Politics:

Lewisburg school director; Lewisburg town council.

Elected, Republican, Pennsylvania State Senate, 1889-1892, member, Centennial Affairs, Federal Relations and Vice and Immorality Committees.

Legacy:

First Republican elected to the state Senate from the 27th District post 1874.

Cited: 

Smull’s Legislative Hand Book, (1889) Cochran, T.B., Biographical Sketches of Senators, page 655, 687 and 693-695.