Late in life known by the alias George William Gates.

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William George Bates was born on December 21, 1829, possibly in Indiana County, Pennsylvania, perhaps the son of David and Mary "Polly" Bates.

Eventually he made his way to Clinton County in southeast Iowa. From there, William Bates and Mary Kennedy were married on May 8, 1855, at St. Anthony's Catholic Church in Davenport, Iowa. William was 25 years old, and Mary was 18.

William Bates was both a farmer and a knave, and apparently he got into serious trouble in Iowa. He and his family then went on the lam and relocated to Sangamon County in central Illinois. William George Bates cleverly told people his name was George William Gates (reversing his first two names and changing his last name by one letter), and Mary and the children simply changed their last name from "Bates" to "Gates."

William and Mary Bates had at least eight children in Iowa: John Bates, Stephen Bates, Margaret Bates, another Stephen Bates, Francis Bates, yet another Stephen Bates, Frances Bates, and Frank Bates.

William and Mary had perhaps five more children in Auburn, Illinois: Thomas Gates, David Gates, maybe Mary Gates, Joseph Gates, and Francis Gates. (Joseph's birth record says that he was the 12th child born to William and Mary.)

Tragically, at the family home in Auburn, Illinois, Mary stepped on a rusty nail a couple of weeks before her death, got lockjaw, and died on September 15, 1888. A funeral Mass was celebrated on September 17 at the Catholic church in Auburn. She was buried under the alias of Mary Gates in St. Bernard's Catholic Cemetery in Glenarm, Illinois.

George Gates/William Bates later married the widow Permilia (Tweedy) Flynn on November 17, 1892. They had one son, Amos "Bud" Gates.

In the last few years of his life, Gates/Bates was living alone, apart from Permilia and Bud, in the Odd Fellows' Old Folks' Home at Mattoon, Illinois, where he died in 1907.

Except for their eldest son John, William and Mary's children all changed their last name from the alias "Gates" to its rightful "Bates" after their mother Mary's death. And even John's son Kitty changed her name to "Bates."

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Thanks to F/A/G volunteer SQ, #48412837, my cousin and a fine researcher:

I've talked to you before about my 2nd great-grandfather, George/William. There was an article published in Illinois State Register (Tuesday, Nov. 24, 1903) that "G.W. Gates of Pawnee is an inmate of the Odd Fellows' Old Folks' Home at Mattoon, Illinois and had been visiting the Grand Lodge and state assembly."