Dr. Stephen Christopher Bates

This photo is said to be Dr. Stephen Christopher Bates.


 Stephen C. Bates was the first child of William Fleming Bates and Mary A. Whisenant (known as Fleming and Polly Bates).  Stephen was their first child and was born December 4, 1825 in South Carolina.   He and his wife, Sarah Eveline (Corley), and children, William Bates, Issabella Bates and James Isaac Bates, along with Stephen's parents and other relatives, moved from Cherokee County, Georgia to Arkansas in 1852.   His first wife, Sarah, is buried in the Pleasant Grove Cemetery at Big Fork.  Later Stephen married Tenna S. E. Elizabeth Georgeann Josephine Shirley on May 19, 1881 in Montgomery County, Arkansas.   On March 14, 1901, he married Mary A. Ausbern/Ansbern in Montgomery County.   Stephen has fourteen children altogether.   He and Sarah had ten: William, Issabella, James Isaac ("Isaac"), Sarah Jane, Joseph, Ambrose Alexander, Sarah Frances, David, Martha, and Lucretia.   Martha and Lucretia and buried in the Pleasant Grove Cemetery at Big Fork.     Stephen and his second wife, Josephine ("Tenna") had four children:  Mary Ann, John Calhoun, Thomas Jefferson ("Tom Bill") and Sarah Evelyn ("Sally") Bates.    Stephen died December 13, 1913 and is buried at Oden, Arkansas.