Great Grandfather Fred Bates, Sr. staked out land at “Paul’s Valley” Oklahoma in the 1800s during the great ‘land rush”. This was going to be his family’s home as farmers, but they couldn’t seem to make a living there. After hearing about the good fishing on the coast of Alabama, Fred, Sr. took a chance and moved the whole family to Grand Bay, Alabama. The family consisted of his wife, Grace, sons, Bud, Rawley, Ted, Fred, Jr. and Robert (better know as Olie); daughters, Lola, Grace (Sis), Lila and Deet. With this large family Fred, Sr. made his way to Alabama by ox and wagon in the early 1900s.
After arriving in Grand Bay, Fred, Sr. discovered he needed a boat to fish so he and the sons built their first boat, the “Helen B”, a thirty-eight footer named after his sister. The boat was made from Cypress trees. The frame was formed from the roots of the trees and planks were sawed from the logs. From this boat, fishing was done with hook and line.
During this time of new beginnings in the fish industry, Fred, Sr. lost his wife to pneumonia. The children were older now and some were even married. Between 1915 and 1918, Fred, Sr. read in the newspaper an advertisement about Palacios, Texas, and a townsite being sold and settled. With great curiosity, he decided to travel by train to this new settlement and check out the possibilities of fishing on the Palacios coast. Upon arriving in Palacios, Fred discovered the great potential for fishing and even shrimping.
He returned to Alabama and loaded up the “Helen B” and three of his sons, Ted, Fred, Jr., and Olie, and made his way by boat traveling the inland waterways and the treacherous Gulf of Mexico. After several days they arrived safely in the waters just off Palacios. There was no harbor so they had to anchor out in the bay.
The new world of fishing and shrimping in Palacios was wide open for discovery and that’s just what they did. Fred, Sr. and his three sons began fishing with line and pole off the “Helen B” and never came up empty-handed.
In 1923 Fred, Jr. wrote home to his sister, Lila, and shared the news about fishing. Two of these letters are still intact with details of how many fish they caught and all the things that he and his dad and brothers were doing in Palacios to sell their catch and start a market. One letter told of a 1200 pound catch of shrimp, caught in ten minutes. The letters told of them catching 485 pounds of trout every two days in Palacios Lake in the “deep hole”. Fred, Jr. bragged in one letter “now we know all the best fishing places in Matagorda Bay are and we can get more shrimp than we want!”
Fred, Sr. began setting up his own market to sell his shrimp while looking for buyers even in other cities, some far away. During this time Fred, Sr. got lonely and took a new wife by ‘mail order”. But, it wasn’t what he bargained for, so he sent her on her way.
Meanwhile, he and the boys loaded up the “Helen B” and headed back to Alabama to see the rest of the family. While there, Fred, Sr. bought another boat, the “Emma”, son, Ted, married Alice Seaman and son, Fred, Jr. married Mary Kryger. Olie never married and always lived with brother, Ted.
In 1931 Fred, Sr. and the three sons and their families, along with Uncle Jimmie and a friend, Hershel Stork, loaded up the two boats along with one horse, one cow, and some chickens and headed back to Palacios. By this time Fred, Jr. had two children, Vernon and Maxine. On their way back this time they came upon a man that was hung to a piling after being shot on Chandeleur Island, Louisiana. They kept very quiet and just passed on by for fear they might be harmed if seen. This trip was like all the others with no communication of any kind so no one knew if they made it safely until a letter was mailed from them after their safe arrival in Palacios. Ted and Alice Bates started their family in Palacios with a son, Ted, Jr. and daughter, Carolyn.
The families all lived together in rent houses along the bay. Palacios was a young town still being settled and the Bates family was making history by expanding the shrimping industry in Matagorda Bay.
This family continues to shrimp even today in the year 2000. Vernon, Sr., age 70; sons, Vernon, Jr. and Mark; grandsons, Keith, Mathew and Eric. Ted, Jr., shrimped for many years, and cousins Hudson, Sr. and Hudson, Jr. are still in the business.
Written as remembered by Vernon Bates, Sr.
