G. D. BATES
PUTNAM: President and Treasurer Putnam Cutlery Company
Colonel Gustavus D. Bates was a member of the general assembly from Putnam in 1887, serving on the republican side of the house. He was elected a delegate to the national republican convention in Chicago which nominated President Harrison, and has been an active and influential participant in political interests in eastern Connecticut. He is the president of the Putnam creamery, and of the "Windham County League." He is also the founder of the Putnam Cutlery Company, which manufactures the "Old Put" knives, holding the position of president and treasurer. Colonel Bates is also a director in various corporations at Putnam. He was born in Thompson, October, 1840, and received a common school education. He has had an interesting and remarkable history from boyhood until now. His father was a farmer, and went to Grosvenordale when the subject of this sketch was but seven years of age, as "outside" superintendent for the Grosvenordale Company. The boy, rather than acknowledge a school teacher’s authority, became a mill operative. When his father returned to Thompson he returned also, and worked on the farm until sixteen years of age, when he became a school teacher in Burrillville, R.I., continuing for two terms, the following year teaching for two terms at North Grosvenordale, Conn.; afterward entering a factory store at Grosvenordale. He enlisted in 1862 in the Seventh Rhode Island regiment, in which he received seven promotions: and after serving two and a half years returned disabled by exposure and wounds. Young Bates’s military ardor and patriotism were so intense that he ran away from home to enlist, much to the disgust of his father, who, when he bade his son good-by, as with his regiment he started for the front, said to him quite pointedly: "Runaway boys do not generally come out very well." Grasping the paternal hand warmly, the young soldier replied: "Father, I’ll make a noble exception to your rule!" - which promise he abundantly verified. From 1865 to 1875 he traveled for a Boston house, and when his health gave way returned to Putnam, where he had married Miss Ellen A. Hutchins, daughter of Benjamin F. Hutchins of Thompson. In 1877 he hecame a commercial traveler from Troy, N.Y., and within a year thereafter went to New York city as manager of a branch house. Thence he went to Putnam in 1884, forming a connection with the "Connecticut Clothing Company." He is at present the outside business manager of Cluett, Coon & Co., linen collars and cuffs. Colonel Bates is a member of the Baptist church, and is regarded with thorough esteem and respect in the community where he resides.
Source: Illustrated Popular Biography of Connecticut - 1891, Compiled and Published by J. A. Spalding, Hartford Conn., Press of the Case, Lockwood and Brainard Company, 1891
Free Connecticut Genealogy Lookups
Connecticut Societies
Connecticut Surname Queries
Connecticut Genealogy Data Resources
|