Frank A. Gates general farmer and fruit-raiser near Anaheim, was born in Groton, Massachusetts, in 1836, a son of Loring Gates, a well-known merchant in Groton, Massachusetts, and Boston. Mr. Gates attended the University at Hartford, Pennsylvania, and at the age of eighteen years he went to Chicago, where he was engaged in the wholesale clothing business with his brother, James L. Gates, until 1859. He then went to Lawrence, Kansas, but, finding all vegetation dried up and the prospects of business consequently poor, he returned to Chicago and engaged with his cousin, Charles A. Eaton, in trade in guns and sporting goods. Next he conducted a hotel on the Union Pacific railroad. He took a house on the train up the North Platte to Julesburg station in Nebraska; in the fall he moved it to Cheyenne, Wyoming, and there ran a hotel until February, 1870, with good success. His next move was to San Diego, California, where he bought a team and drove to Anaheim, in May, 1870. Purchasing land a mile and a half south of Anaheim, he planted it in vines and all other kinds of standard fruits. In 1877 he sold that place and bought where he has since lived, three miles southwest of Anaheim, and there he has been a successful farmer and fruit-raiser. He also owns valuable property on Broadway in Anaheim.
In 1858 he married Miss Sarah A. Fitch, who was born in Boston. Her father, Asa Fitch, was a prominent mercantile man in Boston and Chicago. The children of Mr. and Mrs. Gates are: Frank S., Clara I. and James L.