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Octavia Williams Bates

1846—12 January 1911

Born in 1846 in Detroit.1 Daughter of Samuel Gershom Bates and Rebecca Williams.2 Involved in women’s suffrage and served as secretary of the Detroit Female Suffrage Association, 1870–1871.3 Earned a BA from the University of Michigan, 1877, as one of the first women to attend the university.4 Lifelong member of the Daughters of the American Revolution.5 Served as president of the Detroit Woman’s Club and the Detroit Equal Suffrage Association.6 On the board of directors of the Association for the Advancement of Women.7 Served on the dress reform committee for the National Council of Women of the United States, beginning 1891.8 Member of the advisory board of the Federation of Woman’s Clubs, 1892.9 Presented four papers at the World’s Congress of Representative Women at the Chicago World’s Fair, May 1893.10 Acted as secretary for the High School Scholarship Fund Association of Detroit, 1894.11 Earned a law degree from the University of Michigan and was the post graduate president of the law class, 1896–1897.12 Qualified for the Michigan bar, 1897.13 Attended meetings of the National Council of Women in Omaha, Douglas Co., Nebraska, with EBW, Oct. 1898.14 Spoke and served as a U.S. delegate at the International Council of Women in London, 1899, which EBW attended.15 Lived in Baltimore, 1905–1911.16 Died 12 Jan. 1911 in Baltimore.17

Footnotes

  1. 1 1850 U.S. Census, Detroit, Wayne Co., MI, 39.

  2. 2 1860 U.S. Census, Detroit, Wayne Co., MI, 63, Octavia Bates. Mary Kavanaugh Oldham Eagle, ed., “Municipal Suffrage for Women in Michigan,” The Congress of Women, 1893 (Philadelphia: C. R. Parish, 1894), 664–667.

  3. 3 Detroit City Directory, 1870–71 (Detroit: Charles F. Clark, 1870), 56. Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony, eds., Report of the Sixteenth Annual Washington Convention, March 4th, 5th, 6th and 7th 1884 . . . (Rochester, NY: Charles Mann, 1884), 202. “Octavia Williams Bates,” Newark (OH) Daily Advocate, 9 Jan. 1897, 6. Mary Kavanaugh Oldham Eagle, ed., “Municipal Suffrage for Women in Michigan,” The Congress of Women, 1893 (Philadelphia: C. R. Parish, 1894), 664–667.

  4. 4 “Miss Octavia Williams Bates,” Law Student’s Helper (Detroit), Jan. 1895, 458. 

  5. 5 Mrs. Elroy M. Avery, ed., “The American Monthly Magazine,” Daughters of the American Revolution Magazine 29 (July–Dec. 1901): 182. 

  6. 6 “Miss Octavia Williams Bates,” Law Student’s Helper (Detroit), Jan. 1895, 458. “Octavia Williams Bates,” Newark (OH) Daily Advocate, 9 Jan. 1897, 6.

  7. 7 “Miss Octavia Williams Bates,” Law Student’s Helper (Detroit), Jan. 1895, 458. “Octavia Williams Bates,” Newark (OH) Daily Advocate, 9 Jan. 1897, 6. 

  8. 8 “From the Fair,” Madison County (MT) Monitor, 20 May 1893, 9. “Woman’s World-Dress Reform Recommended by Women’s National Council,” Trenton (NJ) Times, 7 Apr. 1893, 7. May Wright Seawall, ed., Worlds Congress of Representative Women . . . (Chicago and New York: Rand, McNally, 1894), 351. “Among the Women’s Clubs,” Sunday Herald (Boston), 8 Apr. 1900, 43. “Leaders of Thought,” Baltimore Morning Herald, 15 Mar. 1900, 12.

  9. 9 “Miss Octavia Williams Bates,” Law Student’s Helper (Detroit), Jan. 1895, 458. “Club Life,” Detroit as She Is (Detroit: Mabley, 1889), 21. “The Federation of Woman’s Clubs Winds Up Its Business,” Davenport (IA) Daily Leader, 16 May 1892, 3. “Final Course of Lectures,” Daily Inter Ocean (Chicago), 2 Oct. 1893, 7. 

  10. 10 May Wright Seawall, ed., Worlds Congress of Representative Women . . . (Chicago and New York: Rand, McNally, 1894), 351. Mary Kavanaugh Oldham Eagle, ed., “Municipal Suffrage for Women in Michigan,” The Congress of Women, 1893 (Philadelphia: C. R. Parish, 1894), 664–667.

  11. 11 Detroit City Directory, 1894 (Southfield, MI: R. L. Polk, 1894), 81.

  12. 12 “Miss Octavia Williams Bates,” Law Student’s Helper (Detroit), Jan. 1895, 458. “Octavia Williams Bates,” Newark (OH) Daily Advocate, 9 Jan. 1897, 6. 

  13. 13 George Irving Reed, ed., Bench and Bar of Michigan: A Volume of History and Biography (Chicago: Century Publishing and Engraving, 1897), xiv.

  14. 14 EBW, Diary, 25 and 30 Oct. 1898.

  15. 15 EBW, Diary, 27 June and 6 July 1899. “International Council,” New York Daily Tribune, 19 May 1899, 5. “The International Council of Women,” Woman’s Exponent, 15 May 1899, 6. “The International Council of Women,” Woman’s Exponent, 1 Aug. 1898, 1.

  16. 16 1910 U.S. Census, Baltimore, MD, p. B9, Octavia W. Bates. “Octavia Williams Bates Dead,” Detroit Times, 14 Jan. 1911, 8. Baltimore City Business Directory, 1905–1906 (Baltimore: R. L. Polk, [1905]), 182.

  17. 17 “Octavia Williams Bates Dead,” Detroit Times, 14 Jan. 1911, 8. “Died, & Miss Octavia W. Bates,” Sun (Baltimore), 14 Jan. 1911, 6, 9.