The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1895-05-23
A CHICAGO SOLID CITIZEN.
He is Hack and Was Formerly n
slave in North Carolina.

slave in North Carolina.
From the Chicago News.
In a dingy little room at AGO Dearborn
streets Lewis Bates, the wealthlest col
ored man in Chicago keeps house" all
alone.
The walls and floor of the room are
bare, its ceiling is smoky its furniture
the most meager, and the garments of
its white-haired occupant are seedy ana
limiting. Yet this unlettered old man
owns $4,000 worth Of property within a
stones throw of Polk street depot. rents
an elegant new seven-story pressed brick
and terra Gotta apartment house, worth
$4,000 to white tenants on State street,
and could probably cash his check for
100000.
Bates is a small, well-built, ordinary
looking old man, and is almost black.
He wears a fun beard, is very gray and
slightly bald. He is entirely uneducated
and dresses so poorly that he would not
attract a passing glance on the street.
over half his life was spent in slavery,
and his fortune has been accumulated
by hard work and shrewd investments
in Chicago real estate, in the thirty years
of freedom he has enjoyed. He was
burned OUT in the second big Chicago
fire, and his history is interesting and To-
mantle, with a touch OF pathos
Born slave, near Yancyville, N. c.,
nearly seventy years ago, he was sold
away from his parents when a child.
Three times he changed masters, and
finally. when he was about 20 years of
age, found himself in st. Louis, Mo-,
in the hands of a slave trader, who again
offered him for sale, in common with a
lot of other slaves. While young Bates
was with the trader, an old "auntie" who
had been let out to a ST. Louis family on
trial, told him that where she had been
working there was a colored woman called
Aunt Fannie who resembled him enough
to be his mother. She asked him If he had
a mother in st. Louis. Bates said he
didn't know. He had some parents once,
he guessed but that was so long ago that
he had forgotten how they looked
We'll, honey" replied the good old
auntie dat woman is yo' mother, sho'
an de good Lord is gon' to 10th yo' two
together"
Bates went straight up to the trader
and told him what he had heard and the
latter, booming interested, promised to
investigate. Word was sent to Aunt Fan
MES master. who. it was found owned
aunt Fannie's husband, too, and he
brought his servant Fannie down to see
young Bates, and. strangely enough, he
was her SON. The kind master was not
deaf to the poor mothers entreaties for
her sons partnership but very humane
ly purchased him. and thus the little slave
family was again united.
Bates new master owned foundry and
there Bates learned the iron molder's trade
He was given certain task each day and
when that was finished his time was his
own. He worked hard In his extra hours
and in FIVE years had scraped together $3.50
by doing odd jobs. He loaned his little
NEST egg" to a free colored man for
one year at 10 per cent interest, but at
the end of a year the man told him he had
lost the money and Bates, being slave,
could do nothing about 1t. To add to
Bates troubles his father died shortly af-
ter this and the war broke out and the
master determined to take his remaining
slaves to Texas, so that they could not
escape to the free states.
Then Bates began to plan for his free
dom. He saved up $50 and made friends
with one of the officers of the UNDER
ground railroad. and early one morning
they both took fishing poles and went to
the river Bates was rowed across the
Mississippi to the Illinois shore and put on
board a Chicago and Alton train, and in
twelve hours was in Chicago looking for
work This was in 1861. In a few days
Bates found employment in 2. W. Gates
foundry on the west side, and in three
months had saved 500. Then work got
slack at the foundry and he bought horse
and wagon and started out as an express
man. and, although he rapidly accumu-
lated property, he drove his wagon until
a year ago, when he quit because he was
getting too old for heavy work.
A Daily News reporter, who called at his
room yesterday. found Bates at home.
The house in which he lives Is four story
brick at 400 Dearborn street 1t is valued
at $4,000. and the name Lewis Bates is
carved in gray stone center-piece over
the door. Bates owns another house just