Background
He was born on February 24, 1850 in St. Charles County, Missouri, the oldest of ten children of Barton and Caroline Matilda (Hatcher) Bates.
He was born on February 24, 1850 in St. Charles County, Missouri, the oldest of ten children of Barton and Caroline Matilda (Hatcher) Bates.
Young Onward's earliest years were spent at his family's home, Cheneaux Farm, in St. Charles County, where he attended local schools. At the age of fifteen he went to live with his grandfather in St. Louis, where he became an apprentice in the Fulton Iron Works, intending to learn the machinist's trade.
Three colleges awarded him honorary degrees: the University of Wisconsin (1897), Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (1918), and the University of Missouri (1924).
His apprenticeship was never completed, for Charles Shaler Smith, an outstanding bridge expert who originated new designs and methods of erection, secured his release and engaged him as draftsman and inspector on a bridge he was building over the Missouri River at St. Charles. Colonel Smith undoubtedly exercised a strong influence on the young engineer and seems to have held him in high regard, for their relationship was continued in later years.
At this time Capt. James B. Eads was building his great steel arch bridge over the Mississippi at St. Louis. Young Bates, whose father was one of the projectors of the bridge, became associated with Capt. William S. Nelson, who had the contract for the caissons to be used in building the piers, a task involving an early and outstanding pneumatic operation. Following this engagement he spent two years at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, N. Y. On his return to St. Louis, in 1873, he resumed work on the Eads bridge, serving simultaneously as an associate of one of the contractors (Colonel Smith) and as an inspector of the steel and iron work for Eads's own St. Louis Bridge Company. This dual employment, most unusual in character, clearly illustrates his ability to command the respect and confidence of his fellow engineers.
Following the completion of this great work in 1874, Bates entered railroad work, which occupied much of his later life. Beginning as draftsman with the Cincinnati Southern Railway, he served under another outstanding American bridge engineer, Louis G. F. Bouscaren, and later became inspector of iron bridges and trestles for the railroad. In 1877 he took a similar position with the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railroad. In 1878, however, he renewed his association with Colonel Smith and went to Australia, where he designed and built several iron bridges as representative of the Edge Moor Iron Company of Wilmington, Del.
eturning to the United States in 1883, Bates served briefly as president of the Pittsburgh Bridge Company. Then, after two more years with Colonel Smith and a brief mining venture in Mexico, he returned to the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul for thirteen years of responsible service as engineer and superintendent of bridges and buildings. In 1901 he organized the Bates and Rogers Construction Company, but he retired from active practice in 1907. Because of his wide experience, mature judgment, and reputation for fairness, Bates was called upon to serve as arbitrator in a number of engineering and contracting matters.
He died in Augusta, at the age of eighty-six and was buried in Bellefontaine Cemetery in St. Louis.
He was a member of the Institution of Civil Engineers of Great Britain and of the Royal Society of Arts.
He was a member of the Institution of Civil Engineers of Great Britain and of the Royal Society of Arts.
In 1892 Bates married Virginia Castleman Breckinridge of St. Louis.