(Wayne Witt Bates, this info may be of interest for the "library" file.) For many years I ran across three or four Bates who were early settlers in West Florida, the name given to what we later came to call Mississippi Territory (and Alabama Territory a little later). Among the Bates were William, who is still a puzzle;Ephraim, who may be the partiarch of this bunch; Josiah who may be the Joseph we will speak of here. Also, there was John, Joseph, Joseph jr, and Thomas jr. They were all residents of what was known in the earliest times as "the Tombigbee settlement", one of two settlements at the forks of the Tombigbee (Tombeckbe) and the Alabama Rivers on the frontier about 25 miles north of the settlement called Mobille. The other settlement at the forks was the"Tensas/Tensaw" settlement on the east side of the Alabama River not far from the Tombigbee settlement on the west bank of the Tombigbee River. The Tensaw settlement was founded when the Spanish held sway in West Florida (Mississippi Territory)in the mid 1700s. It was during this time Spain built a Catholic Church and a fort on the Tombigbee, naming it Fort St. Stephens after Estban Miro, a Spanish governor. Esteban is Spanish for Stephen. St. Stephens, of course, became the first seat of government of the territory. I first ran into documentation about some of those Bates in the Tombigbee settlement while checking a volume of American State Papers--Public Lands regarding the Early Settlers in Mississippi Territory. This volume deals extensively with the public hearings before the Land Commissioners appointed by President Thomas Jefferson. The Commissioners met for more than a year at Ft. Stoddert beginning in 1804. Their mission was to sift through the tangled web of land grants which had been made by France, Spain, and Britain during their period(s) of sovereignty in the territory. Specific rules regarding dates and methods of acquiring the land were enacted by congress and the commissioners were charged with applying the rules congress set down and awarding or denying claims to the land submitted to them.The earliest claim I recall was one of a French family, Narbone, which dated back to the French domain in 1756. It was heartening to many settlers that the claim was upheld by the land commissioners. In tracking the claims through the first hearing and adjourned hearings for each claimant, I began to untangle some of the Bates names and relationships. I learned that Thomas Bates senior and Joseph Bates senior were brothers and that each had a plantation on the Tombigbee and there was a Bates Creek nearby which probably was named for them. Joseph junior was the son of Joseph senior, as was Thomas junior. This is an example of a naming custom which differs from that of present day. In that time, many a younger man had junior appended to his name even though he did not bear his father's first name. It was simply a way to designate a younger man. Later, I read of the experiences of James Cathcart in 1818-19 who was on a mission for the U.S. Navy and was aboard one of the first steamships to steam up the Tombigbee to St. Stephens with an intent to go on to the Black Warrier (Tuscaloosa) River and beyond to the site of the Vine and Olive Settlement. In passing the plantation of Joseph Bates, upstream a little from the site of Ft. Stoddert, Cathcart stated that Joseph was a "bitter Tory" from North Carolina who came to the Tombigbee when forced to flee that state because of his Loyalist activities during the Revolutionary War. Of course the British held West Florida then so the Tombigbee was a safe haven for Loyalists. Joseph had a large number of slaves and was considered a wealthy man. This was the beginning of the King Cotton days of the South and even though an efficient cotton gin was not available until about 1810, no one came to the Tombigbee to raise corn and wheat. The rich black belt stretched across part of the area and any land along the Tombigbee was fertile and produced great yields. Back a few miles from the river, the land was mostly a dense pine barren with a sandy red soil. Cathcart believed Joseph Bates to be nearly 80 in 1818. His brother Thomas, was not quite so bitter a Tory and Catchcart believed him to be about 70 years old. Thomas lived upriver a few miles near the Cut-off channel which ran east from the Tombigbee to the Alabama River. Adam Hollinger operated a ferry there which was later called Carson's ferry. I know not how or where Cathcart acquired his knowledge and opinions about the brothers Bates, but it was probably common gossip among the river settlers and boatmen. The Tombigbee settlement, about 120 households, stretched along the Tombigbee from old Ft. Stoddert (built 1799 near the 31st parallel) to St. Stephens. In 1800, the settlement was in Washington County , Mississippi Territory and McIntosh Bluff was the seat of government. In 1809, "Old Baldwin" County was formed from the southern part of Washington Co and McIntosh Bluff became the seat of government for Baldwin. Baldwin, Washington and Madison Co in the far north, were the only three areas belonging to the white man. All the rest of present-day Alabama was Indian Land, mainly the Creeks (Muskogees). For the most part, the Indians and white man lived in peace--until the summer of 1813 when the Red Stick Creeks went on the warpath and attacked and killed many of the frontier families at the Fort Mims massacre, near Tensaw. About 25 families settled at Tensaw. The cause of the war: It was the consistent breaking of treaties limiting the number of whites travelling to and through the area. The Indians saw and felt increased pressure of whites squatting on land which still belonged to the Creeks. 'Twould be wonderful if this sparks a glimmer of recognition amongst some of our Bates List readers who could then add to the story about the Bates brothers home in North Carolina. Thomas J. (Jack) Bates <use both addresses to be sure> [email protected] [email protected]