John Gates
John Gates, who has been identified with John Gates & Company, wholesale shoe jobbers of Cincinnati ever since he entered business life, is the third of the name in direct descent in the family and can claim a long line of sturdy English ancestry. He is a native of Cincinnati, born February 23, 1853, and is a son of John and Elizabeth (Collingwood) Gates. The father and mother came from England with their parents about 1826, when the former was a young lad and both families located in Cincinnati. He completed his school training at Woodward High School, from which he was graduated, soon afterward being apprenticed to the printer’s trade. In 1841 he decided to change his vocation and associated with John Simpkinson in the jobbing business. They continued the partnership about a year and in 1842 Mr. Gates established the firm of John Gates & Company in the same line of business, which has ever since been in existence. He proved very successful and traveling men from this house supplied patrons in six or seven states tributary to Cincinnati, Mr. Gates died in 1878, at the age of fifty-eight years, and his wife passed away December 25, 1894, after arriving at the age of seventy-three. They are both buried in Spring Grove Cemetery, in a lot which Mr. Gates purchased in 1852.
After receiving his preliminary education in the public schools John Gates, whose name stands at the head of this sketch, was graduated from the Chickering Institute and later was a student in a preparatory school at Easthampton Massachusetts. Soon after returning home from the east he was made manager of his father’s factory and subsequently became manager of the jobbing department of the house, so continuing until the death of the father, when he and his brother James assumed control of the business. Under their management the operations of the firm have been greatly increased. Mr. Gates is a member of the board of directors of the Cincinnati Traction Company and has gained for himself a highly creditable place as one of the reliable and progressive men of Cincinnati. He has displayed marked ability and indefatigable energy and success has followed as the legitimate result of his labors.
On the 22nd of June 1887, Mr. Gates was married to Miss Frances White, a daughter of M. M. White, president of the Fourth National Bank of Cincinnati, and Hanna Amelia (Coffin) White. To them three children have been born: Morris White, who is now a student at Haverford College, Pennsylvania; John Jr., who is a student of St. George’s school, Newport, Rhode Island; and Elizabeth, who was graduated at the Baldwin school, Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania.
Politically Mr. Gates is a stanch supporter of the Republican Party and socially is identified with the Queen City Club, the Country Club and Golf Club. He has been over thirty years treasurer and member of the board of directors of the Cincinnati Union Bethel, of which his father was one of the Principal organizers, and is also vestryman of the Church of the Epiphany. A liberal supporter of education and of movements seeking to alleviate the ills of humanity, he is highly esteemed by those who know him, representing, as he does, the qualities of a good citizen, a kind husband and father and a faithful friend.
From Cincinnati, The Queen City, Volume III by Rev. Charles Fredric Goss, S. J. Clarke Publishing Co., 1912