John W. Gates

                Industrial Titan and St. Charles Benefactor

 

Titans, J. P. Morgan and Andrew Carnegie loathed John Gates. With his boldness, shrewdness, gambling and sales personality, Gates played in the same league as Morgan & Carnegie.  

 

Growing up in W. Chicago, IL, Gates first business enterprise at age 15 earned him $1,000 chopping down trees and selling the lumber to home builders and the railroad. 

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As a teenager, while working in a store in downtown W. Chicago, he met Dellora Baker a young lady from St. Charles.  Wishing to marry her, he realized he didn't have enough money.

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About this same time, he learned his mom's sister just married Joseph Glidden of DeKalb, IL.

 

At age 21, Glidden hired him to sell barbed wire in Texas. In the 1870’s, most Texas ranchers didn’t want any fencing. Furthermore, no Texan would belive that a stand of wire with barbs could contain their mighty Texas longhorns.

 

Nevertheless, he won over the Texans, married Dellora, moved to San Antonio, bought some land in present day Port Arthur.  

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Under that land, oil!  Gates established the Texas Oil Company later known as Texaco.

 

His involvement with the titans of industry are summarized by Chicago authors Lloyd Wendt and Herman Kogan, in their book  “Bet A Million”, The Story of John W. Gates.

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Wendt and Kogan captured the essence of John Gates:

 

     From those Texas plains through his native Midwest and into the Wall Street,

    he blustered, bluffed, and battled.  In an age of unparalleled expansion, 

     fantastic risk taking, ruthless exploitation, Gates was the most daring builder, 

     the biggest gambler, the sharpest promoter of them all.

 

     He challenged the kings of the wheat pits, the lords of steel, the barons of mining

     and railroads, the oil and financial rulers in his heedless, slashing career.

 

     He upset markets, precipitated panics, broke gambling dives, ruined powerful foes and

     alone fought vast money combines which had successfully tried to oppose the might of

     government.

 

      He revolutionized the cattle industry, put together enormous trusts, raised up a city,

      smashed monopolies and built his own, made millionaires of loyal friends

 

      He tossed fortunes away at the gambling tables and regained them with devious stock          manipulation or solid enterprise; he bought steel mills and copper mines, railroads,

        and circuses.

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Although Gates shocked New York, London and Paris with his roughness, he could speak with the primness of an English professor before Congressional committees and Senatorial hearings.

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In New York City, Gates paid $50,000 a year to for hotel suites at the Waldorf Astoria,  where he had his own private entrance and elevator.  Not surprisingly, he would gamble on stocks on Wall Street and play poker at the hotel.

 

Gates loved the good life which resulted in an early death. Gates, Dellora Baker his wife from St. Charles, and son died within a few years of each other.

 

Gates’ fortune, including millions from Texaco and various steel companies, passed only to two people:  Edward Baker, Dellora’s brother and Gates’ wife’s niece 18 year old Dellora Angell.  Both Edward Baker and Dellora Angell were St. Charles residents.

 

Dellora Angell married her high school sweetheart Lester Norris.  Dellora and Norris contributed millions to St. Charles as evidenced by many "DelNor" and 'Norris' names on buildings, parks, hospitals, schools, etc.

 

Col. Edward Baker did the same.  The name Baker is prominently displayed on many buildings in St. Charles. He also used his inheritance to buy racing horses, one of which broke 17 international records. 

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