The First Language of Edmund Gates, Sr.

                My paternal grandfather, Edmund Sr., the firstborn son of Elizabeth Studebaker Gates and John Fredrick Gates, was born 145 years ago into a silent home. Both of his parents were designated as “deaf” on U. S. census reports.

                Elizabeth had been born in 1851 to a preacher/farmer, Daniel Studebaker. Great-great grandpa Daniel, unlike many of his era, valued education for girls. He was more advanced and informed than many fathers. Daniel learned of a relatively new way for the deaf to communicate, American Sign Language. Being a man of faith, he must have considered the opening of the Kansas School for the Deaf a gift from God. He enrolled his beloved ten-year-old Elizabeth in the new school at Baldwin about thirty miles from their home. The two arrived with ham, butter, and eggs as a down payment on her tuition. Daniel promised the delivery of a wagon load of corn the following week for the final tuition payment. Elizabeth, the first enrollee of the Kansas School for the Deaf, studied diligently for six years and worked at the school, too. (To view a photograph of the first KSD building, go to:https://bernadeanjgates.blogspot.com/2013/10/education-of-elizabeth-studebaker-gates.html)

                John Fredrick Gates came into the world on January 4, 1840, in Jacksonville, Illinois, as a healthy baby boy to Passingfair and Edmund Gates.  At age 14, he contracted scarlet fever and typhoid fever. The young man regained his health but lost his hearing. My father said his grandfather accompanied his friends to the train station as they departed to fight for the Union in the Civil War, but because of John’s disability he could not serve.

                By the 1870 United States Census, John Fredrick was in Crawford County, Kansas, on a farm with his real estate valued at $2,300. Land in Crawford County in 1880 was valued at $11/acre. John Fredrick must have had a “spread” of at least 200 acres.

John Fredrick and Elizabeth Studebaker Gates

                Elizabeth, age 25, and John Fredrick, age 35, met and within a week they were married. The following year my grandfather was born. Their marriage lasted 41 years until John Fredrick’s death.

                Grandpa could sign fluently since signing was the only means of communicating in his home with his deaf parents. His father drove his team of horses with sounds he made. By the time, Grandpa was age three, he had a five-month-old sister. Since both of their children were not hearing impaired, John Fredrick realized little Edmund needed to learn to verbally speak English. He was taken to Illinois to live with John Fredrick’s brother, Robert and his family. Great-grandpa’s plan was for little Edmund to return and teach his little sister, Merry (pronounced like "Marie").

This reportedly is the
earliest photograph of
Edmund Gates, Sr. Mother 
questioned this photograph.
I told her Martha Gates
Johnston gave this copy to
Dad following Grandma's
death. I think the blondish
hair caused her to quiz me,
but my father's earliest 
photo shows a little blonde
toddler! I only knew Dad 
with black or gray hair.* 

                Even though my grandfather learned to speak verbally from his Uncle Robert's family, then returned to teach his siblings, Merry, Ella, and John, to speak,  Grandpa struggled with his profound hearing loss. My father and his siblings mentioned that Grandpa declared his hearing worsened after he worked in Colorado on the construction of the Gunnison Tunnel before his marriage with no hearing protection while incessant dynamite charges exploded around him. 

                Grandpa, an extrovert, embarrassed both Uncle Jim and Uncle Herb at funerals when he insisted on talking to them and asked questions. Uncle Jim said when he tried to answer softly, Grandpa retorted, "Speak up! I can't hear you." Uncle Jim had to forget about funeral protocol and answer Grandpa in a bold voice that he (and everyone else at the funeral) could hear. (I was almost 10 years old when Grandpa died. I never could converse with Grandpa because I couldn't project my voice loudly enough.)

                My father stated that after his brother was struck and killed by lightning, his parents became Christians. Grandma faithfully attended worship services, but Grandpa's hearing deficit kept him from trying to attend. For this reason, I so wish my grandpa could have attended a church with a sign language interpreter. Grandpa enjoyed music. He could have signed along and have sung with his voice. What a change that could have made in his worship experience since sign language was his first language! 

*To read more about the blonde revelation, go to: https://bernadeanjgates.blogspot.com/2020/06/the-blonde-mystery-solved.html