Early Days of Edmund Gates, Sr.

The Two Languages of Edmund Gates, Sr.

Edmund Gates, Sr., my grandfather, was born to Elizabeth Studebaker Gates and John Fredrick Gates on June 16, 1877, in Girard, Kansas. Since both of his parents were deaf, little Edmund grew up in a home where his first language was sign language although he was not hearing impaired. Perhaps John, his father, was more concerned with little Edmund being able to fit into the hearing world by learning to speak. Maybe his father recalled his own childhood years, up to age fourteen, filled with meaningful words and vibrant, beautiful sounds--a time before scarlet and typhoid fever savagely destroyed his hearing leaving him suddenly in a silent world. For whatever reason, John made the decision that little Edmund needed to be in a home where he was exposed to verbal speech. He decided this should take place when their firstborn son was around four years old. Evidently, it was not a mutually agreed upon decision, since Grandpa recalled being torn from his mother’s arms as she cried “hysterically.” One wonders how a little boy coped with being wrenched from his adoring mother’s arms.  In the Gates farmhouse surely Great-grandmother Elizabeth could have frequently been heard sobbing inconsolably as she grieved over her little boy who was going several states away. Although Great-grandfather John must have suffered his own heartbreak over Little Edmund's departure, he was willing to endure the pain of separation because he knew Little Edmund would never learn to talk in their home.

Little Edmund went to Woodbine, Illinois, to live with his uncle’s family. John Fredrick had chosen his brother,  Robert Bell Gates and his wife, Elizabeth, a hearing couple, with whom his son would spend a couple of years. Edmund would meet his cousins - Ira age 10, Edith age 8, and Lois age 6. During his stay with his uncle’s family, Edmund learned to master the English language using his voice. After the two-year stay, he faced a second difficult transition when he had to leave a family he had bonded with to return to his own family in Kansas.

The farmhouse home of John and Elizabeth Gates in Kansas - photographed
by Mamie Marie Gates Judkins Tice in 1991.The right portion of the house
 was built onto the original home after the Gates family sold it.