Daniel Moore Bates (1821-1879)
Daniel Moore Bates was born in Laurel, Delaware on January 28, 1821 as Daniel Elzey Moore, the son of Methodist minister Jacob Moore. He had lost his mother very early in life and as a young boy traveled with his father on his circuit. When his father died in 1829 he was still only eight and he was taken in by local lawyer Martin Waltham Bates and his wife, Mary Hillyard Bates. They became his well loved family and he adopted their name legally, becoming Daniel Moore Bates. In later life he would care for his ailing father until his death in 1869. The Bates were influential and wealthy, and thanks to their efforts, Daniel was able to enter Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania at the age of fourteen and graduate with the class of 1839.