I think I posted this before, but we have new members that may not have
seen it.~~~HAPPY HOLIDAYS~~~~~~~Dot
Tennessee The Volunteer State Vol 2
GENERAL CHARLES T. CATES, JR.
The Cates family, from which the subject of this sketch sprang, settled in
Orange county, North Carolina, probably between 1650 and 1700 and furnished a
number of soldiers to the Revolutionary army. About 1815, Robert Louis Cates,
the grandson of a Revolutionary soldier, emigrated to Tennessee and settled in
Blount county, where he married Amanda Wilkinson the daughter of John
Wilkinson, who came to Blount county from Virginia and was the son of a
Revolutionary soldier. John Wilkinson held many offices of distinction,
including that of district attorney from 1817 to about 1834.
Reuben Louis Cates and Amanda (Wilkinson) Cates had several children, among
them a son, Charles Theodore Cates, who was a lawyer, cultured and of rare
ability, and filled the position of district attorney general, to which office
he was appointed by Governor John C. Brown in 1872, but as the duties of the
office were not congenial he soon resigned. In 1874 he was elected to the
general assembly of Tennessee and enjoyed the distinction of being the only
democrat elected to the assembly from Blount county between the years 1860 and
1922. It was at that time that he voted for former President Andrew Johnson as
member of the United States Senate. His wife was Miss Martha Victoria Kidd, of
pioneer and colonial ancestry. He passed away after a brief sickness, the
result of a cold acquired during his last term of court, on the 11th day of
April, 1919, and aside from his name and date of birth, the only inscription
upon the monument erected to him in old Magnolia cemetery at Maryville,
Tennessee, is:
"A Confederate Soldier of Tennessee--A Lawyer--A Patriotic American Citizen."
Charles Theodore Cates, Jr., the subject of this sketch, was the son of
Charles Theodore and Martha V. (Kidd) Cates, and was born on March 6, 1863, at
Maryville, Tennessee. He received his primary education at New Providence
Academy, Maryville, and graduated from Maryville College in 1881, with the
degree of Bachelor of Arts; and in 1909 he received the honorary degree of LL.
D. From 1881 to 1883 he taught school, part of this time serving as principal
of the public school in Maryville. He devoted his evenings to the study of law
and also used his vacations to the same purpose, studying in his father's
office. In October, 1883, from Chancellor W. B. Staley and Judge M. L. Hall,
he received his license to practice law, and at the December term of the
circuit court of Loudon county, of that year, he was admitted to the bar. He
commenced the practice of his profession at Maryville, as a member of the firm
of Cates & Son. In November, 1886, he married Miss Emma J. Parham of
Maryville, of pioneer and Colonial ancestry. In 1889 he removed to Knoxville,
where he became a member of the firm of Howe & Cates, with which firm he was
associated for about two years. He next entered into law partnership with
General R. N. Hood, in 1890; this connection being severed by the death of
General Hood in 1892. In partnership with Jerome Templeton, Mr. Cates
practiced law from 1893 until 1898.
In 1898 Mr. Cates was elected chairman of the democratic executive committee
of Knox county, which position he held for four years. During that period the
democrats, under his efficient leadership, won some of the most sweeping
victories which they had ever won in the county, capturing all the offices,
including the delegation to the legislature. He was also elected to membership
on the democratic executive committee of the state of Tennessee in 1898, which
office he held for two years, and in 1900 he was appointed a delegate at large
from the state to the national democratic convention, which met at Kansas
City, and nominated Colonel Bryan for the second time.
In October, 1902, he entered into law partnership with S. G. Shields and R. E.
L. Mountcastle, and the firm of Shields, Cates & Mountcastle was one of the
best known Tennessee law firms during the past fifteen years. They handled
many of the most noted cases in the legal annals of the eastern division of
the state. During the time that the firm was in existence, one of its members
was a member of the democratic national committee from Tennessee, and another
member, Charles T. Cates, Jr., served as attorney general of the state.