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Bates, Merritt

Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature

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a Methodist Episcopal minister, was born at Queensbury, N. Y., July 12, 1806. When but seven years old he was thrown upon his own resources and began his life-struggle. From childhood he was in the habit of rising at four, summer and winter, and devoting the first three hours of the day to study. When his poverty forbid the luxury of a candle, the light of a pine khot served his purpose. Thus he strove until he acquired a solid English education, and became so proficient in the classics that in 1836 Middlebury College conferred upon him the honorary degree of M.A. In 1827 he entered the Troy Conference, and devoted thirty-six vears of his life in its active ranks. In 1863 he became superannuated, and retired to a new farm near Travis City, Mich., where he died Aug. 23, 1869. Great zeal, diligence, and success marked. Mr. Bates's course through life. See Minutes of Annual Conferences, 1870, p. 139."