Gates House

Gates House

Samuel Gates was born in 1790 about 40 miles outside of Portland Maine, when as a young man he journeyed to Ohio, and settled on the banks of the Muskingum River. At an early age he married a Miss Suzanne Emerson, who was born in Windsor, Vt., and was a relative of Ralph Waldo Emerson. Their daughter Phebe Gates was four years old when her parents brought her to Illinois, which was then a Territory, and was not admitted to the Union as a State until several months after their arrival.

Gates was the owner of the land at the time of the home’s completion in 1830. The original land grant was made in 1821 to Hazen Bedel, who sold it to Ruben Brush in 1823. Brush in turn sold it to Samuel Gates in 1826. Samuel Gates entered Calhoun County, and later owned land in Sec. 9 Richwoods Township now Jersey County. He moved to Buffdale Township in 1826 and became a neighbor of David Wooley.

A Jersey County paper states that David Wooley was the builder of the house. Wooley was a millwright in New York. In 1822 he came west to Columbiana, where he settled and lived until his death in 1861. Wooley could have started building the house for one owner in 1822 and finished it for Gates in 1830. A ledger in the possession of the Gates family lists items which seem to be related to the finishing of the home.

In July of 1832 Phebe Gates married Mr. Jacob Strawn. His first wife died in December of 1831 near their home in Jacksonville.

Samuel Gates’ son Samuel Gates Jr. enlisted in the 61st Illinois Infantry Company A and fought in the Civil War. Gates was killed in duty to his country and is buried in the Eldred Cemetery along the Scenic Bluff Road.

An October 28, 1830 article in the Jersey County News announces the gift of the house and farm to Mrs. Leo Smith of Jerseyville from her father, Henry Shafer of Carrollton. Smith gave the house its inscribed name “WHITESTONE.”