Anderson Cates (deceased) was born November 9, 1810, in Orange County, N. C. While young he had few opportunities for educating himself and when only ten years old he left his mother and went to Louisiana. After remaining there some years he lived alternately in Mississippi and Tennessee until 1836, when he came to what is now Lake County. In 1850 he married Susan Box, who was born November 19, 1827, in Decatur County, Tennessee, and they had six sons and three daughters; six of the children are now living. Mrs. Cates was a Methodist. Mr. Cates was a farmer, and by nature a quiet unassuming man; a democrat in politics.
When quite a boy he depended upon his own exertions, he worked for one man for five years for his board and clothes, as he thought, but at the end of that time the merchant told him he thought it was time he was “doing something in return for his clothes.” In order to make full recompense for the little he received he toiled on for three years longer for him, and throughout his life he had this strict sense of justice and the determination to succeed; he owned a farm of 456 acres. In 1868 he died, leaving behind him a record that his wife and children can treasure with pride. Since his death his wife has managed the farm herself. She is the daughter of Joseph and Siney (Harris) Box, natives of Decatur County. They moved to Lake County in 1834; her mother died in l845, her father in 1863. The family biographies of the Cateses and Boxes are intimately connected with the early history of the western district, and deserve honorable mention in its pages.