The Old Grogan Homestead Wiley Bridge and Cox Road

The Old Grogan Homestead at the intersection of Wiley Bridge and Cox Roads. The home has been remodeled and updated by its new owners in 2013 but this property holds a lot of memories for the Bates family who sharecropped in the area in the early 1900s until about 1950.

Vada Bates and Tommy Grogan

Vada Bates was the daughter of Lem and Lillie Smith Bates. Vada married Tommy Grogan. This is a photograph of Vada with Tommy Grogan and their son, Vernie. This picture was taken at the Old Grogan Homestead located on Old Alabama Road now known as Wiley Bridge Road in Woodstock, Georgia.

Tommy Grogan is the son of Charlie and Leavy Grogan who owned this farm. Charlie died at age 42, leaving Leavy with seven small children. She sold the farm off in pieces until it was all gone trying to support the children. Many of the children were raised by relatives who helped out as much as they could.

Moses Petty and Indy (Endy) Bates Barnfield, with children Adell, Nina and Loyd

This is a postcard sent by Indy (Endy) Anna Barnfield to her parents, Thomas and Sarah Elizabeth Ward Bates. It reads "to my dear old father and mother." The postcard is a photograph of Petty Moses and Indy (Endy) Barnfield with their children, Adell, Nina and Loyd, taken in about 1920.

Endy Anna bates Barnfield came by train to Vernon, Texas in 1904. Her parents, Thomas F. and Sarah Elizabeth Bates, came to Texas for the birth of their grandchildren in 1906 and 1908. Both of those children died the year they were born.

In 1910, Nina Elizabeth was born and the Bates grandparents were here for her birth; however, they never got to come again. After Nina came Loyd Harrison in 1912. Adele was born in 1915, and Hester Lee was born in 1918, and John Bunion (J.B.) was born in 1924. Hester Lee is 97 and still active in 2015.

Petty Moses and Indy (Endy) Bates Barfield

Petty and Indy Bates Barfield with their children showing their new car. Indy is the daughter of  Thomas and Sarah Elizabeth Ward Bates. She is the sister of Lem Bates. Indy married Mr. Barfield at the age of 14 and she only knew him for a few weeks when he came through Georgia. They married on December 26, 1904. They left for Texas and she never returned to Georgia except for only two different occasions. She always wrote letters beginning with Dear Old Maw and shared about her life in Texas. She never returned for her parent's funerals.  She escaped her poor Georgia farm life. A cousin kept some of the letters in an old shoebox.  We found out that she sent money back to Georgia to help to pay off their farm loan.  

Pierce Dobbs Jr. & Pearl Edith Smith

Pierce Dobbs Jr. and Pearl Edith Smith with their children PeeWee, Jerry, and Doris. Peewe had MS and didn't live beyond his teens. They had another child, Kenneth, who was not born at the time of this picture. Kenneth is still living in 2013.

Eugene Mercier and Estelle Pruitt Grogan

Eugene Mercier Grogan and Estelle Pruitt with their three children, Calvin, Janell, and Patricia. They had another child named Larry who was not born at this time (abt 1947). Estelle is the daughter of Frances and Mary Bates Pruitt.

Book Update for September 16

Yvonne made it through the first round of edits and has rewritten sections of the Bates ancestry book as she verified facts. The book is being proofread by Yvonne's mother, Doris Mauldin, to catch as many typos as possible before going to an editor.

Once the editing is complete, the book will go to Jenny, who will have her nephew insert the photos into the manuscript.

Then, it will come back to Yvonne for final formatting before being uploaded to CreateSpace for publishing. We are on target for a late October publishing date. The title will be Oh, Come, Angel Band ~ The Living Genealogy of the Charlton Bates Family by Jenny Bates Meadows-Sauls and Yvonne Mauldin Perry.

The Family of Fred and Martha Louella Bates Jackson

Martha Louella Bates Jackson was born July 16, 1916. She is 97 years old and living with her son in law, Kenneth, and daughter, Doris Jackson Mauldin, in Suwanne, Georgia today. Martha had five children:  Katheryn, Edmond, Dorothy, Fred Jr. and Doris.  Doris and Dorothy are twins. Martha is near the age of her brother, Jay, and was close to him in her youth.  She went everywhere he went. .

Children of Johnny and Viola Pruitt Smith

The five children of Johnny and Viola Pruitt Smith are photographed above.  Lenard, Mamie, Edna, Hubert in uniform and Louise.  Johnny was the only son of Newton Alexander and Savannah Bates Smith.  Johnny was a peddler throughout Cherokee and Cobb counties.  He drove a truck full of fresh vegetables and fruit.  He weighed them on a hanging scale from the truck. He was known by the kids as Uncle Johnny. He always had plenty of bananas and gave the kids one every time he came. He did not know his gift would make a banana sandwich their only lunch that day. Lenard followed in his dad's footsteps.  He had a roadside market near Roswell, Georgia. Viola had a cheerful spirit and everyone loved her. She was the sister of Frances Pruitt who married Mary Bates, daughter of Lem and Lillie Smith Bates.  Lee Pruitt married Johnny's sister, Lessie Smith.

New Home Baptist Church Baptizing of Bethel and Ethel Bates

This is the baptizing of Bethel (Buster) and Ethel (Deedle) Bates by old Preacher Stover in the 1930s.  The men would dam up the creek on the church property with bags of dirt about a week before the baptizing so that the water would be deep enough.  Bethel and Ethel Bates are the twins of Lem and Lillie Smith Bates. 

Luther Calvin Wilson (Always known as Lucious) Son of Cicero and Indiana Ward Wilson

This is a photo of Luther Calvin Wilson and his cousin, Zachery Lee Wilson. Luther is the son of Cicero and Indiana Ward Wilson. He was born on July 25, 1885. Luther lived with relatives and worked on their farms as a child. His mother, Indiana, couldn't keep him due to his father passing at 31 years of age.  Luther was called Lucious and ran his own plumbing business in Atlanta in the twenties. Luther married Margie Mae Henderson and they had four children.

This is the family who Lucious stayed with. Pictured is Luther Calvin (Lucious) Rosa, Epsie, Mattie and Zachary, all cousins of Lucious.

Annie Lou Smith Waters, daughter of Savannah & Newton Alexander Smith.

Annie Lou Smith Waters was born in 1896.  She is the daughter of Savannah Bates and Newton Alexander Smith. In the picture above you will see Jessie Suggs, who is married to Annie's daughter Mary Lizzie, Annie Lou Smith Waters, her daughter Doris and son J.W. These are the children of Annie Lou and her husband Dee Waters who was born in 1897 died in 1947. Annie was a fun loving person. Once she came dressed up to J.B. and Lois's house at Halloween with some of her family at bedtime with stockings over their heads and scared them all to death!  (This was when Jenny was little.)

Ethel (Deedle) Bates Daughter of Lemuel (Lem) Harris and Lillie Smith Bates

This is a photo of Ethel Bates.  She was born on February 27, 1923.  Ethel is the daughter of Lem and Lillie Smith Bates.  She married James Elvin Gravitt.  James is the brother of Mildred Bates who married Bethel Bates her twin. Ethel could play the piano and a guitar, even though she never took a lesson. She played for churches from the thirties to the sixties.  Ethel could cook like her mother Lillie Bates. Eating at her house was like eating at Grandma's. Ethel died September 6, 2010. (Picture was made before she married in the late thirties.)

J.B.(Jay) Bates, son of Lem and Lillie Smith Bates

J.B.(Jay) Bates was born in 1913. J.B. was the son of Lem Bates and Lillie Smith-Bates. This photo was taken in the early 1920's next to a relative's car.  Jay's first car in the thirties was  a T-model.

J.B. married Lois Sims on October 4, 1932.  The couple met in a mule and wagon at New Home Baptist Church. They had 4four children: Sarah, Jenny (the co-author of Oh, Come, Angel Band ~ The History of the Georgia Family Descending from Charlton and Nancy Bates), Jennevy (b. 1939) and Blanche (b. 1941). Jennevy and Blanche both died at birth.

Lillie Smith Bates grandchildren, Katherine Grogan and Jenny Bates

This is a photo of Lillie Smith Bates with her grandchildren, Katherine Grogan and Jenny Bates, in 1947.  Katherine Grogan is the daughter of Tommy and Vada Bates Grogan. Jenny Bates is the daughter of J.B. and Lois Sims Bates.  All the kids were barefoot in the pictures. They only had one pair of shoes a year. They had to pull them off after school and save them for Sunday. Many of the grandchildren grew up close to grandma.