 Jane Bates, an Emmons County homesteader, was somewhat of a rarity among pioneer women. The mother of 11 children, with eight surviving to adulthood, was divorced by 1880. Born in New York in October, 1823, Jane Fraher found herself divorced from John Bates in Jefferson, Hillsdale, Michigan. There, she was living with her daughter Josina, who was married to Nathan Shorman, soon to be a well known figure in Emmons County, Dakota Territory.
Jane resided with the Shormans along with her own 14 year old son, Benjamin Bates, and her grandson, Willie Rowse. Willie’s mother, Electra Jane Bates Rowse, died at age 20 of dropsy, now known as edema, and probably related to cardiac problems such as congestive heart failure. Electra Bates had married James Rowse, and her sister Olive had married his older brother, George Rowse. Both men were Civil War veterans serving in the Wisconsin Infantry. Willie Rowse was just two when his mother Electra died, and Jane took up his care. Soon the Shormans, along with Jane and Willie Rowse, would relocate to Emmons County. In the 1885 Dakota Census, Jane is listed as a servant for the John McCrory family at their ranch in Winona. Undoubtedly, Jane helped Mrs. Mary Louise McCrory feed the many ranch hands who worked at the McCrory’s Bar 100 spread. Willie Rowse would attend the Winona School with the McCrory’s only son, Thomas McCrory, and work as a ranch hand for the McCrory spread, until he purchased his own ranch on the Cannonball River. Willie Rowse, in 1893 would marry Lillie Spicer, who would be murdered in 1897, along with her parents, grandmother, and twin toddler sons in Winona, North Dakota.Jane Bates took out homestead land in Winona, and bought up pre-exemptions. She built a house off the main street of Winona, erected by house-builders, Richard Evans and Cassius Hickle. In the summers, she traveled back to Hillsdale, Michigan to visit her other children. Around 1899, Jane moved with the Nate Shorman family to New Whatcom, Washington. By 1910 Jane and the Shormans were in Santa Clara, California. Jane, at this time was 96 years old. Curiously, many records have her burial in Hillsdale, Michigan in the late 1880s. She does not appear in the 1920 Census, so it is apparent that Jane Fraher Bates passed away after she was 96 years old, probably in California. A pioneer woman who raised eight children, innumerable grandchildren, homesteaded, built houses, and was part of the early history of Emmons County.
Article written by Mary Corcoran. Photo courtesy of Bob Shorman |