
Martin Van Buren Bates was born in Kentucky on November 9, 1845. Although he was an infant of normal size born to normal sized parents, he experienced an incredible growth spurt around age 6 or 7. By the beginning of his teenage years he was over six feet tall and nearly 300 pounds. He grew steadily until age 28, when he reached the height of 7' 9" and weighed 470 pounds.
Mr. Bates became a schoolteacher, but at the start of Civil War he joined the Confederate army.
He soon rose to the rank of captain.
After the war he returned to Kentucky, but left for Cincinnati shortly thereafter.
While in Cincinnati he joined the circus, exhibiting his imposing stature to curious patrons.
While the circus was touring Canada, Anna Haining Swan visited. She was even taller than Captain Bates, standing 7' 11-1/2" tall, and weighing 413 pounds. She was immediately hired by the circus promoter.
Captain Bates and Anna married in 1871 in London while touring Europe with the circus.
The couple returned to Ohio a year later and settled in Seville.
They built a 14-room farmhouse with 14' ceilings, 8-1/2' doorways and filled it with oversized furniture.

Anna gave birth to an 18 pound, 27" child in May of 1874, but the baby girl was stillborn.
Years passed, and the couple decided to return to the nomadic circus life, traveling with the W.W. Cole Circus from 1878 to 1880. During this time, tragedy beset them again when their son born in January of 1879 died 11 hours after birth. He was 30" and 23-3/4 pounds.
Anna died unexpectedly in 1889 one day before her 42nd birthday. Captain Bates telegraphed a casket company in Cleveland to send a casket to hold the remains of a person eight feet tall. The casket company, thinking the size was a misprint, sent a normal-sized casket. Bates went into a fury over the mistake and they had to delay the funeral three days until the special casket could be constructed and shipped to Seville.
Following his wife's funeral, Bates, taking no chances on a repeat of the casket fiasco, ordered a second
extra-long casket for himself and stored it in his barn for years until it was needed.
Captain Bates remarried in 1897 to a woman of normal size.
He died in 1919 at the age of 74, and is buried with his family in this cemetery.
Please replace geocache exactly as found.
A reference waypoint is provided for the Bates grave site.

"Find it... in Medina County" is a series of 25 geocaches placed throughout the area
at various parks and other points of interest.
Those who locate at least 18 of the geocaches in the series and present their completed passport at one of our redemption sites will receive a fabulous trackable geocoin as a memento of the fun that they have had exploring the area. (Limited to the first 250-- one per caching name).
Update August 2016: We have reordered another 250 geocoins!
Caches will remain in place and coins are available to the first 500 geocachers to complete the series.
And as an added bonus, there will be an extra surprise for those that find
at least 22 geocaches in the series! (While supplies last.)
You may print your passport by clicking here: "Find it... in Medina County" passport
Redemption sites and their hours are listed on the passport.
A list of the geocaches in this series can be found here:: "Find it... in Medina County" geocaches