BATES, TEXAS. Bates, about twenty miles east of Denton in Denton County, was originally part of the Hawkins settlement. The community was named after Kentuckian William E. Bates, who, along with Harry Hawkins, founded the Hawkins settlement in 1853. Bates was known in the area primarily for its Zion Methodist Church and its camp meetings. Reverend Bates used the village as a base of operations to spread Methodism in North Texas. Like many of the pioneer settlements in Denton County bypassed by the railroads, Bates failed to sustain itself. The post office closed in 1904, and by the 1930s the community no longer existed.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: Edward Franklin Bates, History and Reminiscences of Denton County (Denton, Texas: McNitzky Printing, 1918; rpt., Denton: Terrill Wheeler Printing, 1976). C. A. Bridges, History of Denton, Texas, from Its Beginning to 1960 (Waco: Texian Press, 1978).
