Bates, Arthur Laban

Bates, Arthur Laban (nephew of John Milton Thayer), a Representative from Pennsylvania; born in Meadville, Crawford County, Pa., June 6, 1859; studied under tutors and was graduated from Allegheny College, Meadville, Pa., in 1880; studied law; was admitted to the bar in 1882; attended Oxford University, London, England, in 1882 and 1883; commenced the practice of law in Meadville, Pa., in 1884; also engaged in the newspaper publishing business in 1899; city solicitor of Meadville 1889-1896; elected as a Republican to the Fifty-seventh and to the five succeeding Congresses (March 4, 1901-March 3, 1913); declined to be a candidate for renomination in 1912; delegate to the International Peace Conference at Brussels in 1905 and at Rome in 1911; delegate to the Republican State convention at Harrisburg in 1908; resumed the practice of law and the publishing business in Meadville; also engaged in banking; trustee of Allegheny College; director of the Pennsylvania College of Music and of the Meadville City Hospital; president of the Meadville Free Library; presidential elector on the Republican ticket of Hughes and Fairbanks in 1916; delegate to the Republican National Convention at Cleveland in 1924; died in Meadville, Pa., August 26, 1934; interment in Greendale Cemetery.