After completing his university course and receiving the degree of Bachelor of Laws, Charles L. Bates entered the teaching profession, in which he rendered valuable service for nearly twenty years. Since 1902 he has served as town treasurer of Wareham. Mr. Bates is a descendant of Mary Allerton, who came to New England in the “Mayflower.” His father, Stephen Bates, was a native of Plymouth, Massachusetts, where he was engaged during the early years of his life as a shoemaker and fisherman, but during the later years he was engaged as a farmer. He died in 1917, having survived his wife, Lucinda N. (Burgess) Bates, born in Pocasset, Barnstable County, for six years.
Charles L. Bates, son of Stephen and Lucinda N. (Burgess) Bates, was born in Plymouth, Massachusetts, November 16, 1865, and received his early education in the public schools of Wareham. After completing his course in Wareham High School he matriculated in Lincoln-Jefferson University, from which he was graduated with the class of 1909, receiving at that time the degree of Bachelor of Laws. After completing his professional training he entered the teaching profession and for a period of seventeen years was so engaged, giving to this work the advantages of his excellent training and his native ability, and exerting over the lives of the young people with whom he was associated a most beneficial influence. For nine years he was engaged in teaching in Wareham, and for eight years he taught in the town of Carver, Massachusetts. He has always taken an active interest in local public affairs, and on March 2, 1902, he was elected town clerk and town treasurer for Wareham. That office he has continued to hold for more than twenty-four years. He has served as a member of the Wareham School Board for over twenty years, and for several years was a member of the Republican town committee. He is a past-president of the Plymouth County Town Clerks’ Association, which later admitted Barnstable and Dukes counties, and is now known as Plymouth, Barnstable, and Dukes Counties Town Clerks’ Association, of which he is a member. Fraternally, he is affiliated with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. His religious affiliation is with the Methodist Episcopal church, which he serves as a member of the board of trustees and as recording steward, and he is also treasurer and superintendent of the Sunday school.
Charles L. Bates was married, in 1887, to Georgia R. Morse, who was born in Carver, Massachusetts, daughter of Robert P. and Deborah (Bumpus) Morse. Mr. and Mrs. Bates are the parents of two children: 1. Charles Evarts, who served in the United States Army during the World War as a member of the Supply Company, 128th Infantry, Eighty-second Division, with which unit he served in France with the American Expeditionary Forces for eighteen months. 2. Georgia Myrtle, who married Arthur E. Gariepy, of Wareham, and is now engaged as her father’s assistant at the town office.
Source
Thompson, Elroy S., History of Plymouth, Norfolk and Barnstable Counties Massachusetts, 3 vols., New York: Lewis Historical Publishing Company, Inc., 1928.