Morgan Bates

Morgan Bates (born July 12, 1806 in Warren County , New York , †  March 2, 1874 in Traverse City , Michigan ) was an American politician . Between 1869 and 1873 he was lieutenant governor of the state of Michigan.

Career

Morgan Bates completed an apprenticeship in printing and then worked in the newspaper industry. In 1826 he founded his first newspaper in Pennsylvania . He later went to New York City , where he worked for Horace Greeley , with whom he was friends. In 1833 he came to Detroit , where he worked for the Detroit Advertiser newspaper . In the meantime he became the owner of this newspaper. This was close to the Whig Party , which Bates belonged to. Between 1849 and 1856 he traveled twice to California during the gold rush , where he founded the Alta California, the first daily newspaper west of the Rocky Mountains in San Francisco . He returned to Michigan in 1856.

Meanwhile, Bates had joined the Republican Party . For two years he worked for the State Auditor General of Michigan in Lansing . He then moved to Traverse City, where he published a newspaper for 16 years. From 1861 to 1865 and again from 1869 until his death, he served as a treasurer in Grand Traverse County . In May 1868 he took part as a delegate at the Republican National Convention in Chicago , where Ulysses S. Grant was nominated as a presidential candidate. In the same year, Bates was elected Lieutenant Governor of Michigan alongside Henry P. Baldwin . He held this office between 1869 and 1873. He was Deputy Governor and Chairman of the State Senate . He died on March 2, 1874 in Traverse City, where he was also buried.

Web links

• Morgan Bates in the database of Find a Grave (English)
• The Political Graveyard
• Online article on Bates
• Short biography