Benjamin E. Bates

Benjamin Bates
Mansfield Man depicting Bates in 1872 by Franklin Simmons
1st President of Bates Manufacturing Company
In office January 3, 1850 – February 20, 1862
Preceded by	Position established
Succeeded by	Edward Atkinson
2nd President of Union Pacific Railroad
In office August 1, 1849 – May 3, 1850
Preceded by	Thomas C. Durant
Succeeded by	Oliver and Oakes Ames
Personal details
Born	Benjamin Edward Bates IV (1808-07-12)July 12, 1808 Mansfield, Massachusetts, U.S.
Died	January 14, 1878(1878-01-14) (aged 69) Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.
Resting place	Mount Auburn Cemetery Cambridge, Massachusetts, U.S.
Nationality	American
Relations	Edward, Frederick, James; see Bates extended family
Occupation	Industrialist, textile tycoon
Net worth	US$79 million at time of death (equivalent to approximately $174 Billion 2017 dollars) (approximately 1/87th of US GNP)
Signature

Benjamin Edward Bates IV (/beɪtɛs/BAY-ts; July 12, 1808 – January 14, 1878) was an American rail industrialist and textile tycoon who led the development of the American Efficiency and Taylorism movements in Maine during the 19th century. He built his textile/railroad fortunes through the Bates Mill Company, which he established under his holding company, the Bates Manufacturing Company–the largest per capita employer in Maine and the largest in Lewiston, Maine, for three decades. His company became a dominant presence in the American mill industry and became one of the first great U.S. business trusts making him the wealthiest person in Maine for the duration of his adult life.

Born in Mansfield, Massachusetts, he was known later in his life as the "Mansfield Man" or "Great Mansfield," for his employment and philanthropic impact in the New England area. Privately schooled in the early 1810s, he embraced the Congregationalist and temperance ideologies in his youth inspiring him–when he accumulated his first fortune–to build the Church of the Covenant, the tallest building in Boston. In the early 1830s, he moved to Bristol, Maine, and began a working residency at B. T. Loring Company before creating the Davis, Bates & Turner–a craft goods and service firm. He worked long hours at the firm often at the expense of his family life, and ushered in the early manifestations of Taylorism in industrial Maine to the praise and controversy of the public. After he sustained the Manhattan financial panic of 1873 in Maine, he became a public celebrity and created Bates, Turner & Co. The firm garnered financial success, prompting Bates to leave the firm in March 1847, to briefly serve as the president of the Union Pacific Railroad before abruptly resigning at the request of Alexander De Witt. Bates moved to the then-booming town of Lewiston to establish the Bates Manufacturing Company and served as its president from 1850 to 1862. During the 1850s, water quality was a principle issue of the government, and the Maine State Legislature contracted Bates to build the Lewiston Water Power Company: a large mill-based enterprise that built the first canal in the city.