“A HISTORY OF TENNESSEE AND TENNESSEEANS
The Leaders and Representative Men in Commerce, Industry and Modern Activities”
By Will T. Hale and Dixon L. Merritt
The Lewis Publishing Company, Chicago and New York, 1913
Pages 1351-1352
HON. JAMES H. BATE. Former state senator from Sumner county, the Hon.
James H. Bate well upholds the prestige and dignity of a family which has been notable in Tennessee history for the greater part of a century. Men of this name have held many high posts in the local and state affairs, one of them being governor and others distinguished in military service. James H. Bate, himself, had a gallant record as a soldier, and was the captain of his company during the Civil war. A number of years he spent in Texas, but he has returned to Sumner county to pass the declining years o his life, and he how has a comfortable farmstead at Castalian [sic]Springs, the old homestead of the family
James H. Bate was born in Sumner county, Tennessee, October 16, 1841. He is a son of James and Amanda F. (Weathered) Bate. Grandfather Humphrey Bate was a native of North Carolina and he came to Tennessee with his family and became one of the early settlers and farmers of Sumner county, where he spent the remainder of his life.
Closely related to the Bate family is the Brimage family. They came from England, and one of the family, Wm. Brimage, served as governor of the Island of Bermuda under appointment from King George III after which he settled in North Carolina.
James Bate, the father, was born in North Carolina, and during young manhood came to Tennessee, where he died in 1842, having spent many years in Sumner county.
His business was that of farming, and he owned a large acreage and managed his plantation with slave labor. He was a captain in the Tennessee State Militia. His wife,
Amanda Bate, was a daughter of William Weathered, who was a Virginian, and came from that commonwealth into Tennessee. He was one of the successful farmers o this state in the early days. James Bate and wife were the parents of four children, some of whom are distinguished. William B.. was formerly United States senator and also governor of Tennessee. Capt. Humphrey Bate, the second son, was killed at the battle of
Shiloh while in the command of his company. Elizabeth P., the only daughter, became the wife of Major E. P. Tyree, who was a major in the service during the Civil war. The other is James H. Bate, the subject of this sketch.
The last named received his education in the Rural Academy of Sumner county, after which he spent two years in Bethany College, of West Virginia, the famous old school in the Pan Handle of that state, established by Alexander Campbell, the found of the Christian denomination. The outbreak of the c=Civil war found him in pursuit of knowledge at this institution and he at once entered the army as a private, but in 1863 was made captain. He was first under fire at Aquia Creek, also fought at the first battle of
Manassas, and was in the first regiment to reenlist for service. As a veteran he participated in the battle of Chickamauga, the battle of Missionary Ridge and several other of the important engagements which marked the struggles of the northern and southern armies in the southern half of the Confederacy. His experience as a soldier continued for four years, during the entire period of the war.

After returning from the field o f battle, his home for five years was in Memphis, where he was employed as a collector for one of the wealthy men of the city. This was followed by a farming experience, after which he went to El Paso, Texas, being a passenger on the first railroad train run into that city, which was in about 1881. He has the distinction of having constructed the first international street railroad in the sate of
Texas, and edited on the first papers in the western part of the state. During his residence of five years in Texas he accumulated a good deal of money by his different ventures, and then returned to Sumner county, which has been his home to the present time. He is the owner of three hundred acres of land comprising the old Bate homestead near
Castilian Springs. The old place where he was born and with which are connected co many family associations was built in 1840.
Mr. Bate was married in 1897 to Rebecca Allen, the daughter of Van Allen, who was one of the prosperous farmers of Sumner County. The two sons of their marriage are
William B. and Francis X., both of whom are school boys. Mrs. Bate is a member of the
Presbyterian church, while his church is the Baptist. Politically he is a Democrat, and in
1897 represented the county in the lower house of the legislature, and in 1898 was returned as a state senator.
Transcribed by Liz Brase, © 2006