Last week, we looked at John Wesley Gates and Iwanowna Ayres Gates, popular merchants in the Ararat community. Gates’ son, Francis Marion Gates helped his father run the store for over fifty years, where they were dealers in groceries, dry goods, boots, shoes, hats, tinware, glassware, and tableware.
Francis Marion Gates married Miss Alice Victoria Scott on the 15th of May 1887. Alice was the daughter of Wolford Scott and Eliza Jane Gilham of the Meadows of Dan area. Francis Marion and Alice Scott Gates had four children, Davis Herman, born in 1888; Nellie, born in 1890; Arthur Marion, born in 1891; and Garrett Hobart Gates, born in 1893. For the rest of this column, we will focus on the life of the son, Arthur Marion Gates, who served his mountain community as a doctor for nearly four decades.
Arthur Marion Gates was born on the 19th of December 1891 in Ararat, Virginia. Gates graduated from Woodlawn High School in Woodlawn, Virginia and then earned his bachelor’s degree from Roanoke College in Salem. Dr. Gates received his medical degree from the Medical College of Virginia at Richmond in 1919.
On the third of October 1919, Dr. Gates married Miss Maybelle Alline Lowry of Chesterfield County, Virginia; the young couple had met in college where she was training as a graduate nurse. Dr. Gates practiced medicine for a year under the direction of Dr. S. A. Conduff of Mount Airy before going out on his own.
On New Year’s eve 1920, Dr. Gates and Maybelle’s first child, Arthur Marion Gates, Jr. was born. Their son, Stuart Lowry, was born in April of 1922, followed by Lucille Virginia in March of 1924, Phyllis Maude in February of 1928, and Horace Lowell in 1931.
In addition to bringing more than five thousand babies (including a set of triplets) into the world over the thirty-seven years Dr. Gates practiced medicine, he served as the official coroner for Patrick County.
For the entire time Dr. Gates practiced medicine in the Hollow, he also operated a telephone company with lines ranging throughout the mountain for more than 160 miles. A losing business, he kept the telephone service in operation because he felt the service was needed for many of his patients and neighbors.
Dr. Gates was also the owner of Radio Station WYVE out of Wytheville, Virginia, which was managed by his oldest son, Arthur, Jr. for many years. Dr. Gates and his family attended Blue Ridge Presbyterian Church and were active in Blue Ridge School activities.
Tragedy struck on the 4th of July of 1955; the following is an excerpt for Dr. Gates obituary:
“Dr. Arthur Marion Gates, 63, prominent Patrick County, Virginia physician and civic leader, died at 8pm Monday, July 4th, at his home in Ararat, Virginia. Dr. Gates death was sudden and was a great shock to the people of the community, which he served for so many years. Funeral services for Dr. Gates will be held today at 2pm at the Blue Ridge Presbyterian Church by Reverend Granville Guynn and Reverend Glenn Williams. His young son, Corporal Horace Gates, was in Germany at the time of the father’s death and will be unable to attend the funeral.”
“The doctor suffered an attack in his office two weeks ago, but the need for his services was so great that he continued his work. He was attending to a patient at his home Monday when he was stricken by a heart attack. Dr. Gates served the citizens of his mountain community for more than 37 years. He was known to have traveled 48 hours at a time without rest, attending to his patients for a 25-mile radius of Ararat, Virginia. His services often were extended beyond Hillsville, Virginia and Dobson, North Carolina. His death is a great loss to the community as he was the only active “country doctor” who served this area.”
Maybelle outlived two of her children, Stuart Lowry and Horace Lowell, passing away at the age of eighty-three in 1980.
Woody may be reached at rockcastlecreek1@gmail.com or (276) 692-9626.
