John Warne (Bet-a-Million)
Gates, barbed wireqv
promoter and oilman, son of Asel and Mary (Warne) Gates, was
born in Winfield, Illinois, on May 18, 1855. His two brothers
were killed early in life and left John an only child at
fifteen. He attended school at Gary's Mill and later took a
five-month course in bookkeeping, penmanship, and business law
at Northwest College at Naperville. He married Dellora Baker on
February 25, 1874; they had one son.
After meager success in the
hardware business Gates went to work for the Washburn-Moen
Company as a barbed wire salesman in Texas. He arrived in San
Antonio in 1876. Inspired by Doc Lighthall's medicine show, he
rented Military Plaza, constructed a barbed-wire corral, filled
it with longhorn cattle,qv and
successfully demonstrated the holding power of barbed wire. His
demonstration resulted in order for more wire than the factory
could produce. Gates returned to Illinois and, upon being
refused a partnership in Washburn-Moen, quit. He went to St.
Louis, where, in partnership with Alfred Clifford, he built the
Southern Wire Company into the largest manufacturer and
distributor of unlicensed "moonshine/non-patented" barbed wire.
His later achievements
included ownership or control of Consolidated Steel and Wire
Company, Illinois Steel Company, American Steel and Wire Company
of Illinois, and Republic Steel Company. He invested in the
building of the Kansas City, Pittsburg and Gulf Railroad from
Kansas City to Sabine Lake, Texas; the road later became the
Kansas City Southern Railway, which Gates controlled. By 1900
Patillo Higginsqv had dug a
2,000-foot well on Spindletop (see
SPINDLETOP OILFIELD), but he ran out of money before he struck
oil. He applied to Gates for financing, and Gates formed the
Texas Company (now Texacoqv), in which he owned 46 percent of
the stock. On January 10, 1901, Spindletop blew in. Gates urged
construction of pipelines and a refinery and furnished $500,000
for the purpose. In addition to forming the Texas Company he
constructed new docks; built the First National Bank in Port
Arthur, the Port Arthur Light, Power, and Ice Company, and the
Plaza Hotel; and contributed $60,000 to build Port Arthur
Business College.
He gambled at poker, the stock
market, and horse races. In 1900 at a horse race in England he
bet $70,000 on Royal Flush with 5½-to-1 odds and won $600,000.
Rumors had him winning over $2 million and said he had bet a
cool million, a fabrication that gave him his nickname.
Early in 1911, ill with kidney
ailments and diabetes, Gates developed a malignant growth in his
throat. He went to France in July, but doctors operated too
late. He died on August 9, 1911. His funeral in the grand
ballroom of the Plaza Hotel in New York City was conducted by
Rev. Wallace McMullen of Madison Avenue Episcopal Church and
Rev. J. W. LaGrone of Port Arthur. Flags in Port Arthur and on
the Texas Company vessels flew at half mast, and crepe was
displayed on the locked doors of other Gates interests. Gates
left his fortune to his wife, their son, and selected others.
His charity contributions included Mary Gates Memorial Hospital
in Port Arthur and St. Charles Home for Boys. Mrs. Gates later
gave funds to establish Gates Memorial Library in Port Arthur,
the forerunner of Lamar University at Port Arthur.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: Herman
Kogan and Lloyd Wendt,
Bet-A-Million!: The Story of John W.
Gates (New York: Bobbs-Merrill,
1948). Vertical Files, Barker Texas History Center, University
of Texas at Austin.
Sidney A. Brintle
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