(1) 1870 United States Census for Michigan, Ionia Co., Orange Twp., Ionia
Post Office: page 6; June 2, 1870.
Fellows Gates is head of household, married to Mary [Williams] Gates. He
was born in Vermont, is 68 years old, and a farmer with real estate
valued at $1,500 and personal estate valued at $350. He is eligible to
vote. Their son Freeman and wife live two households away.
(2) LDS FamilySearch 1880
United States Census database for Orange, Ionia Co., MI. Family History
Library Film 1254584, NA Film Number T9-0584, Page 243C.
Fellows Gates is 78 years old and born in Vermont. His parents were both
born in Connecticut. He is head of household, a farmer, and married to
Mary (Williams) Gates. There are not other individuals listed in the
household.
(3) J. Smith family records, February 10, 2002.
- This source includes a rather comprehensive 27-page review of Fellows
Gates and his descendants.
- Fellows Gates was the son of Elias and Polly Gates, both of Connecticut.
- He "... was born in Vermont in 1802, married Mary Williams in 1827, and
moved to near Niagara Falls, New York, thence to Buffalo, NY, thence to
Camden, Ontario. In 1855 he settled in the Township of Orange, Ionia
County, Michigan where he died Jan. 15, 1893."
- "The Gates family lie in Tuttle Cemetery... Orange, Ionia County ,
located on Kelsey highway W. of M66"
(4) "Portrait Biographical Album of Ionia and Montcalm Counties, Mich."
Chicago: Chapman Bros., 1891, pages 432 -435. Portrait of Elias Gates.
"ELIAS GATES who resides on section 29, Orange Township, Ionia County, is
the son of Fellows Gates, a native of Vermont, who was born in 1802. The
grandfather of Elias was a soldier in the Revolutionary War. Mrs. Fellow
Gates, a native of Massachusetts, bore the maiden name of Mary Williams.
After her marriage to Mr. Gates in 1826 they resided for years in
Canada. Then for five years in New York before returning to Canada.
They came to Michigan in 1855, and settled on a heavily timbered farm in
the wilderness, and taking up forty acres began clearing it. The father
remained on this land for thirty-six years, but has never voted here.
His wife died in 1881 at the age of seventy-five years. She was a member
of the Free Will Baptist Church. All of their eight children are now
living. Our subject; Rachel; Mrs. W. Barber; Sallie; Mrs. Thorpe;
Nathan; Freeman; George; Elizabeth; Mrs. W. Carbaugh; and Caroline, Mrs.
Leffingwell..."