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The Bate Family. Chapter XII.
BERRY HILL" was the Virginia home of James Smalley Bate, and for that
reason the Kentucky pioneer chose that name for his extensive acreage on
the Ohio river, his estate covering the land which is now the suburb of
Glenview, and the Bate residence being the Glenview Farms, home of Mr.
and Mrs. Baylor Hickman.
Dr. James Bate, a surgeon, who emigrated from Yorkshire,
England, and settled in St. Mary's, Maryland, was the father of the Kentucky
settler.
Dr. Bate married Susannah Bond, the daughter of James
Bond, whose five sons fought in the Delaware Blues. The Bates removed to
what is now Martinsburg, W. Va., and it was there that on attaining his
majority James Smalley Bate married Lucy Moore Throckmorton, granddaughter
of John Robinson, speaker of the House of Burgesses, and great granddaughter
of Sir Alexander Spottswood, first Colonial governor of Virginia.
When James Smalley Bate and his family came to Kentucky
in 1789, their first location was Harmony Landing on the river above Prospect.
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They moved shortly to Falls of Ohio, and their first home here was a
twelve-room log house on "Berry Hill." The second house was of brick and
stood about five hundred yards from the third house on "Berry Hill," which
was started shortly after 1800, and is now the Hickman home. The
house and grounds were planned and laid out, a composite of the old Bate
place in Maryland and Virginia.
James Smalley Bate was interested in the civic life of
Louisville, and he was one of the founders of Christ Church Cathedral,
and gave the land on which the church was built. He died in 1834, leaving
a large fortune to his seven children, each receiving 500 acres of the
estate. James Smalley Bate is buried in the old Glenview cemetery and here
lies his mother, Susannah Bond Bate, who was born in 1740. Dr. James Bate
died in Virginia during the Revolution.
The black walnut forest to the side of the homestead furnished
the beautiful wood which is found in the mantels, and the woodwork and
floors throughout the dwelling. The forest itself was uprooted in the Louisville
cyclone and the side of the house was badly damaged also. According to
a tradition in the family, expert carvers were paid $150 apiece for the
work on the mantels, which are exquisite in design. The doors
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for the house were brought on packmules from Virginia, and as the house
was finished before the doors arrived, it was necessary to hang mattresses
in the apertures when the family took possession of the house.
The little attic room in the cupola, high up over the
front door, is said to have been the household bank, and here James Smalley
Bate kept the treasure chest with its stock of gold from which the expenses
of the estate were drawn, and into whose coffers poured the wealth of this
substantial and prosperous landholder, who did so much to advance agricultural
pursuits in Jefferson county.
Gerard Bond Bate inherited the Bate home, "Berry Hill,"
and he sold it in 1869 to James C. McFerran, who, with his son, John B.
McFerran established a famous trotting horse farm on the Glenview Farms.
Later it was the home of John E. Green, and for some years has been owned
by the Hickmans.
John Throckmorton Bate, who was born in 1809 at Berry Hill,
and lived to be eighty-eight years old, spent his life in that vicinity.
In 1834, the year of his marriage, to Eleanor Anne Locke, he built "Woodside"
within a mile of his father's home. The house still standing is a splendid
example of the Virginia farmhouse colonial of white brick. In this house
lived three generations
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of Bates, the last owner in the family being John Throckmorton Bate,
son of Clarence Bate and Octavia Zantziger, and grandson of John Throckmorton
Bate.
The name of "Woodside" was changed to "Arden" when the
beautiful place was purchased by Peter Lee Atherton, who continues to make
it his year-around home. Many fine pieces of mahogany furniture bought
for Berry Hill and Woodside are still in possession of the Bate family
in Louisville. A quantity of the family silver was lost in a fire a few
years ago.
James Smalley Bate and his wife, Lucy Moore Throckmorton,
were the parents of the following children: Catherine, James Smalley, Robert,
Susan, Lucy, Gerard Bond and John Throckmorton Bate.
Catherine Bate married Henry Washington, a Virginian and
close kinsman of George Washington, who as a very young man left the Old
Dominion for the Kentucky settlements. No other member of his immediate
family ventured this way, and when one of his descendants was seeking an
accurate genealogy of the family it was necessary to make a trip to Virginia
to secure data from the Washington Bibles.
There are three children of Catherine
and Henry Washington living at Irvington, Ky. Mary Washington, who married
Theodore Munford,
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recently celebrated her ninetieth birthday; Georgiana, who married Richard
Herndon, the mother of Jesse M. Herndon, of Irvington, and Bate Washington,
whose wife was Mary Helm. Emmaree Washington, daughter of Bate and Mary
Washington, is the wife of B. Perry Weaver, of Louisville, and the mother
of Ben Helm Weaver, Burton Perry Weaver and Mary Washington Weaver.
Glorvine Eugenia Washington, daughter of Henry and Catherine,
married Alfred Harris, and from her is descended a granddaughter, Catherine
Washington Harris, the wife of Dr. Clint W. Kelly. She is the mother of
Dr. Alfred Harris Kelly, whose wife was Amy Gunn Snowden before her marriage;
Dr. Clint W. Kelly, Jr., Wager Swayne Kelly and Edwin Parson Kelly. Susan
Washington, another daughter, married Dr. Joseph Morrison Tydings, the
Methodist minister, and their son Richard H. Tydings and his wife, Nell
Mansir, with their four children: Joseph Mansir, Anna Ray, Richard, Jr.,
and Mary Avery Tydings, make Louisville their home.
Lucy Washington married Junius Alexander, and their son,
Dr. Junius B. Alexander, lives here.
Lucy Bate, who married George Gray, had five children,
but left few descendants. A daughter,
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Lizzie Gray, married Mann William Satterwhite, and was the mother of
George Satterwhite, who married Laura Hays, and of Bessie Satterwhite,
the wife of Walter Stouffer, and mother of Walter Stouffer, Jr.
Mary Gray married Dr. Coleman Rogers, and their only living
child is Mary Rogers, Mrs. William O. Andrews, of St. Louis, and the mother
of four children. William Gray married Nellie Snowden, and has living here
one granddaughter, Eleanor Gray, the wife of Rudolph C. Krauss. Lucy Gray
was never married. Ella Gray, one of the four daughters of Lucy Bate and
George Gray, is the widow of Norbourne G. Gray, and has one son, Coleman
Gray, who makes his home in New York.
Gerard Bond Bate, who inherited the home place, died a
bachelor. He was a Harvard graduate, and a man of great culture and refinement.
John Throckmorton Bate married Eleanor Anne Locke, and
had two sons, Octavius Bate, who died as the result of an accident while
a student at Centre College, and Clarence Bate, who was educated at Brown's,
a classmate of Elihu Root and John Hay.
Clarence Bate married Octavia Zantziger, daughter of Major
Richard Zantziger, and his wife, Mary Bullitt. There were four children
of
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this marriage, three living, Octavius L. Bate, a bachelor; John Throckmorton
Bate, who married Margaret Mitchell, and Octavia Zantziger Bate, who is
the wife of. Dr. Clarence Graves, head of the Baptist Mission of the South,
at Nashville.
John Throckmorton and Margaret Bate have two children,
Margaret, the wife of Allen Ford Barnes, of San Antonio, and the mother
of Margaret Ford Barnes, and John Throckmorton Bate, Jr., a student of
medicine at University of Virginia.
Susan L. Bond Bate married in August, 1826, Richard Taylor
Robertson, the son of Isaac Robertson, who came from Glasgow, Scotland,
and his wife Matilda Taylor, daughter of Commodore Richard Taylor. The
Robertsons left Louisville to make Brandenburg their home. They had thirteen
children, and from one of these, a daughter, Susan Eliza Robertson, a number
of Louisville people are descended. She married her cousin, Richard Alexander
Bate, a son of James Smalley Bate II, and his wife, Virginia Alexander.
Susan Eliza and Richard Alexander Bate have a daughter
and two sons in the city, Fanny Barbour Bate (Mrs. Theodore S. Drane),
Dr. Richard Alexander Bate, who married Julia Hornsby Calloway, a descendant
of Daniel Boone's
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companion, Col. Calloway, the Indian fighter, and Virginius A. Bate,
who married Eliza Johnson.
Lucy Moore Throckmorton Bate, another daughter, married
Henry Watts Clark, of Chicago, and James Smalley Bate married Nell Semple,
a cousin, and lives in Henry county.
James Smalley Bate and his wife, Virginia Alexander, had
a family of eight children, and their home was a part of the Glenview Farms.
The couple lived there, died there, and their children are making their
home on the land. Two daughters, Lucy and Ellen Bate, married Major Walker
Taylor, Confederate veteran, and nephew of Gen. Zachary Taylor. From Lucy
Bate Taylor, the first wife, are descended James Taylor and his sister,
Virginia Taylor, who live on the Bate land on the Brownsboro road. Ellen
Bate Taylor, the second wife, leaves three daughters, the Misses Taylor,
who also live out on the Brownsboro road. Another daughter of James Smalley
and Virginia Bate is Virignia Alexander Bate, who lives on a portion of
the old farm.
Robert Bate, son of James Smalley Bate and Lucy Moore
Throckmorton, married Fannie Barbour, and had four sons, Gerard Bate, a
bachelor; William Bate, who married Lucy Washington; Philip Bate, whose
wife was Helen Bullitt, and
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Edward Bate, who married Fannie Mayo, and has two children, Rebekkah
Bate Welch, of New York, and Yandell Bate, U. S. A.
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