page_title: Benjamin Bates IV
section_title: Death and legacy
hierarchical_section_title: Benjamin Bates IV / Death and legacy
caption_attribution_description: English: Hathorn Hall at Bates College
context_page_description: Benjamin Edward Bates IV was an American rail industrialist, textile tycoon and philanthropist. He was the wealthiest person in Maine from 1850 to 1878, and is considered to have introduced both the Efficiency and Taylorism movements to the economy of Maine.
  Bates was born to a large family in Mansfield, Massachusetts; he moved to Bristol, Maine, for a working residency at B. T. Loring Company before creating the Davis, Bates & Turner–a craft goods and service firm in the early 1830s. After entering the milling business, he built the Bates Mill in 1852 which launched the larger Bates Manufacturing Company in Lewiston, Maine. His company quickly became the largest per capita employer in Maine and the largest in Lewiston, for three decades. Contracted by the Maine State Legislature, Bates founded the Lewiston Water Power Company: a large mill-based enterprise that built the first canal in the city.
  At the start of the American Civil War, Bates correctly anticipated that the talk of secession in the Southern States would lead to a shortage of cotton. By buying up an unprecedented amount prior to the Battle of Fort Sumter, he cornered the market.
context_section_description: Benjamin Bates died on January 14, 1878 at age 69, in Boston, Massachusetts. His body was entombed at the Mount Auburn Cemetery on Fir Avenue in Cambridge, Massachusetts two days later.
  Bates Street, West Bates Street, and East Bates Street in Lewiston and Auburn, Maine, respectively, are named in his honor.
  His death was attended by Lewiston, Boston, and New York City elite, and the Mayors of numerous cities gave speeches on his life. His funeral was held in the Lewiston City Hall, and clergymen gave speeches on his commitment to the college and God.
  He was survived by his wife, Sarah Chapman Gilbert (his second wife and daughter of Joseph Gilbert, niece of Abijah Gilbert) who lived from 1832 to 1882 and his four children:
  Josephine Bates Hammond (1839–1886)
  Benjamin Edward Bates V (1863–1906)
  Sarah Frances Bates Herschel (1867–1937)
  Lillian Gilbert Bates (1872–1951)
  Arthur Hobart Herschel (1870–1953)
  
  Bates College's inaugural president, Oren Burbank Cheney said the following of Bates delivering his eulogy: 
  Bates wanted labor for our laborers, education for our children, places of worship for our worshipers, light for our streets, water for our houses, and a hospital for our sick and our dying. I have heard the man [Bates] speak of his love for Lewiston, and his love for the college. While in Lewiston, our desires were his desires: our interests were his interests: and our affairs his affairs...
  Alfred J. Lebel, a Lewiston native, attended Bates College, and went on to run the Bates Manufacturing Company from 1985 to 1999.
caption: Benjamin Bates' donations to the foundation of the Maine State Seminary led the founder of the college to rename the college in his honor in 1864.
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