DUANE
Duane's take
The official marker tells it this way, and I'm just the voice carryin' it down the road. Now settle in, because this is a story about a man who showed up in Port Arthur and proceeded to remake just about everything he touched. His name was John Warne Gates.
Born in Illinois in 1855, Gates arrived on the Gulf Coast in 1899 — not by accident, but at the urging of his business partner and town promoter Arthur Stilwell. And if you think that sounds like two big personalities colliding in one ambitious little city, well, you're not wrong to wonder. Gates had already made quite a name for himself before he ever smelled that salt air.
He'd earned fame as a barbed wire salesman, then turned around and built a fortune as a steel magnate. The man knew how to find the edge of something and press on it. So when he landed in Port Arthur, he didn't slow down one bit.
Not long after his arrival, Gates helped finance Patillo Higgins' endeavor to drill for oil. You may have heard what came of that. In January 1901, they struck oil at the Spindletop field.
Just like that, the Gulf Coast was never quite the same again. But Gates wasn't finished. He founded the Port Arthur Rice Milling Company.
He pushed hard for Port Arthur to be recognized as a United States port of entry — and he pushed hard enough that President Theodore Roosevelt signed the congressional act to that effect in 1906. That's the kind of man who doesn't just move to a town; he reshapes what a town can be. He ran a model dairy farm.
He built the Mary A. Gates Memorial Hospital. He put up the Gates Plaza Hotel.
And in 1909 he founded and endowed the Port Arthur Business College — the institution that lives on today as Lamar State College of Port Arthur. He also set aside land for what became the Gates Memorial Library after his death. Financier, entrepreneur, philanthropist — the marker calls him all three, and the evidence backs every word.
Now, about that mansion. Also built in 1909, near this very site — a Classical Revival showpiece boasting eighteen rooms and numerous outbuildings. It took nine months to build, and it cost five hundred thousand dollars.
That house said everything about where John Warne Gates stood in Port Arthur — socially, economically, every which way. After Gates died in 1911, the mansion eventually became the home of Dr. Murff F.
Bledsoe, who developed the Bledsoe Place addition. And then, in 1960, the house was razed. Gone.
Five hundred thousand dollars, eighteen rooms, nine months of building — and then silence where it stood. But the college is still there. The library bears his name.
The port he championed still receives ships. John Warne Gates arrived in 1899 at somebody else's invitation, and somehow he ended up leavin' his mark on nearly everything in sight.
What the marker says
Illinois native John Warne Gates (1855-1911) arrived in Port Arthur in 1899 at the urging of his business partner and town promoter, Arthur Stilwell. Gates' time here as a financier, entrepreneur and philanthropist left a significant legacy to the city in the form of numerous charitable bequests, businesses and educational institutions. Prior to his arrival in Port Arthur, Gates had gained fame as a barbed wire salesman and earned his fortune as a steel magnate. Soon after his arrival on the Gulf Coast he helped finance Patillo Higgins' endeavor to drill for oil, which resulted in the discovery of oil at the Spindletop field in January 1901. Gates founded the Port Arthur Rice Milling Company and promoted the recognition of Port Arthur as a United States port of entry, which was achieved when President Theodore Roosevelt signed the congressional act to that effect in 1906. Other endeavors included the Gates model dairy farm, the Mary A. Gates Memorial Hospital and the Gates Plaza Hotel. He founded and endowed the Port Arthur Business College (now Lamar State College - Port Arthur) in 1909, and set aside land for what became the Gates Memorial Library after his death. Gates' Classical Revival mansion, built near this site in 1909, epitomized his social and economic position in the city. Boasting 18 rooms and numerous outbuildings, it took nine months to build at a cost of $500,000. The house later became the home of Dr. Murff F. Bledsoe, who developed the Bledsoe Place addition, and was razed in 1960. (2001)