Kate Stevens Bates was an author. The collection includes her correspondence, diaries, manuscripts, account
books, and scrapbooks. The diaries span from 1880 to 1936. Her diary entries are not regular; often several weeks pass between entries. The
correspondence spans from 1878 to 1934 and concerns family matters, business, and social news.
Repository:
University of Oregon Libraries
Special Collections & University Archives
Funding for encoding this finding aid was provided through a grant awarded by the National Endowment
for the Humanities.
Biographical Note
Kate Stevens Bates lived from 1852 to 1941. She grew up in Newport, Rhode Island, and Dorchester, Massachusetts. She was the daughter of
Isaac Ingalls Stevens, governor of the Washington Territory from 1853 to 1857. She was married to Edward Wingard Bingham in 1886. After her first marriage, she moved to Portland, Oregon, where her husband
had a home and a mother. E. W. Bingham and his brother John invented an improved horseshoe, and went to Boston and New York to promote it. They
founded the Bingham Sectional Horseshoe Company. Kate Bingham accompanied her husband, and lived in Dorchester and New York from 1887-1888. The
horseshoe business failed, so the couple returned to Portland, Oregon in 1888, where Mr. Bingham practiced law. His most famous case was the
Terwilliger will case. He also was involved in ballot reform. Mrs. Bingham was a member of the Unitarian Society in Portland, prominent socially, and
an amateur writer for newspapers and magazines. The diaries refer to such prominent Portlanders as the Strongs, Eliots, Deadys, Catlins, Griswolds,
Failings, and McArthurs. At various times she and her husband visited Bingham Springs in Eastern Oregon and she visited friends in Olympia,
Washington. Both places are fully described in her diaries. Mr. Bingham died in 1904, and in 1913 she married James H. S. Bates. After her second
marriage, Mrs. Bates lived for a time in Massachusetts and after 1918 at Cloverfield Farms, near Olympia, Washington.
Content Description
The Kate Stevens Bates papers include correspondence, diaries, manuscripts, and miscellaneous
papers. Correspondence concerns family matters, business matters, and social news. Correspondence includes letters to Edward W. Bingham (1886-1904), Hazard Stevens
(1878-1916), Mrs. Isaac I. Stevens (1878-1913), and Maud Stevens (1912-1927) and letters from James H. Bates (1912- 1927), Edward W.
Bingham (1885-1903), Helen Eskridge (1916-1940), Richard Eskridge (1916-1940), Edmond S. Meany (1902-1934), Hazard Stevens (1886-1918), Mrs. Issac I.
Stevens (1888-1913) and others. Diaries of Kate Stevens (Bingham-Bates) are included for 1880-1881, 1885-1902, 1913-1915, 1918, 1920-1922, 1924-1932,
1935-1936. Her diary entries are not regular. Manuscripts include travel and historical articles (1883-1930) by Kate S. Bates. Miscellaneous papers
include a scrapbook of E. W. Bingham containing publications of and articles about the Ballot Reform League of Oregon (1890-1892), and account
books.
Use of the Collection
Restrictions on Access :
Collection is open to the public.
Collection must be used in Special Collections & University Archives Reading Room.
Restrictions on Use :
Property rights reside with Special Collections & University Archives, University of Oregon Libraries. Copyright resides with the
creators of the documents or their heirs. All requests for permission to publish or quote from manuscripts must be submitted to the Manuscripts
Librarian in Special Collections & University Archives. The reader must also obtain permission of the copyright holder.
Preferred Citation :
[Identification of item], Kate Stevens Bates Papers, Ax 202, Special Collections & University Archives, University of Oregon Libraries,
Eugene, Oregon.
Administrative Information
Arrangement :
Collection is organized into the following series: Series I. Correspondence; Series II. Diaries; Series III. Manuscripts; Series IV. Miscellaneous Papers.
Detailed Description of the Collection
The following section contains a detailed listing of the materials in the collection.
This collection is indexed under the following headings in the online catalog. Researchers desiring materials about related topics, persons,
or places should search the catalog using these headings.
