William Edmunds Bates

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and here's how I'm gonna pass it along to you. William Edmunds Bates. Born October 12, 1812, in Amherst County, Virginia.

Died April 25, 1883. Seventy years on this earth, and he packed a whole lot of Texas into the back half of them. Now, he didn't arrive here young and restless.

He came to Texas in 1851, a grown man, already licensed as a Methodist minister out of Kentucky, where he'd earned that license back in 1843. He had his calling. He just needed his country.

And North Texas was about to give him plenty of it. In 1853, he was appointed to the Dallas circuit. Three hundred square miles.

Let that settle in a moment. Three hundred square miles of rough country, scattered settlements, and souls that weren't exactly lining up at a church door; because in most cases, there wasn't a church door yet. Bates rode that circuit once a month.

Every month. Rain, dust, whatever the land had to offer. Then in 1854 he was admitted to the East Texas Conference, and that's when the building really started.

Montague. Pilot Point. Denton.

Jacksboro. Gainesville. He founded churches in every one of those places.

You string those towns together on a map and you're lookin' at the backbone of early Methodist North Texas, and William Edmunds Bates rode every mile of it. The marker says he was very influential in planting Methodism in North Texas, and I'd say the evidence holds up. Along the way, he married Susan Wright.

They had ten children. Ten. So when he wasn't covering three hundred square miles on horseback, he had a full house waitin' on him.

William Edmunds Bates didn't just pass through North Texas. He put down roots, and then he helped a whole region grow up around them.

What the marker says

(October 12, 1812 - April 25, 1883) Born in Amherst County, VA.; licensed in Kentucky (1843) as a Methodist minister. Came to Texas 1851; settled in Denton County. He was appointed (1853) to 300-square-mile Dallas circuit, and traveled it once a month. Admitted 1854 to East Texas Conference, he founded churches at Montague, Pilot Point, Denton, Jacksboro, Gainesville. He was very influential in planting Methodism in North Texas. He married Susan Wright. They had ten children. Recorded - 1973