John Alexander Oates Papers
John Alexander Oates was a Wake Forest College alumnus (1895) who became a lawyer and state legislator. He also served as editor of the North Carolina Baptist and was a local historian of the city of Fayetteville and Cumberland County, North Carolina. This collection contains correspondence, family history materials, financial and legal documents, news clippings, notebooks, photographs, publications, writings, subject files, and Wake Forest College files.
Biographical and Historical Note
John Alexander Oates was a Wake Forest College alumnus (1895) who became a lawyer and state legislator. He was born on June 2, 1870, to John Alexander Oates, Sr., and Mary Jewell Ashford Oates. He taught school while earning his own degree at Wake Forest College (1895).
Oates had a varied and active career. He served as editor of the North Carolina Baptist from 1892 until 1907. In 1910, he earned his N.C. law license and practiced until 1950. Oates was devoted to the temperance and prohibition causes, organizing an Anti-Saloon League of North Carolina through his leadership on the Baptist State Committee of N.C.'s Temperance Committee. In 1908, Oates' organizing work was successful when North Carolinians voted for state-wide prohibition.
Oates held a number of government positions as a Democrat: Fayetteville Board of Aldermen member, Cumberland County Board of Education chair (1903-1913); the first judge of the Cumberland County Recorder's Court (1913); Fayetteville School Board chair (1911-1928); state senator (1917-1919); and School for the Blind and Deaf director (1925-1933); and other county and state roles.
In addition to all these roles, Oates was a member of the Wake Forest College Board of Trustees from 1906-1948, including 9 years as Board president. He also was an active local historian, focusing on Fayetteville and Cumberland County, North Carolina. His most notable publication was the 1950 book The Story of Fayetteville and the Upper Cape Fear. Oates was an active member of First Baptist Church, Fayetteville.
Oates was married to Emma Estelle Dodd and, after her death, to Isabelle Charters Crowder, with whom he had two children: John Alexander Oates III and Mary Ashford Oates. He died on February 12, 1958.
Sources: Stroupe, Henry S. "Oates, John Alexander." Dictionary of North Carolina Biography. 1991. Available at https://www.ncpedia.org/biography/oates-john-alexander
Collection Overview
This collection focuses on his volunteer work with the Anti-Saloon League of N.C. and Wake Forest College and historical research regarding his family, Fayetteville, and Cumberland County. It contains little of Oates' professional life as a lawyer and state politician. Material types include correspondence, family history materials, financial and legal documents, news clippings, notebooks, photographs, publications, writings, and subject files.
Many files listed in the collection inventory include a page count note; most of these should be correct but some may be inaccurate. Materials related to Wake Forest College are located in the correspondence and subject files series.
Collection Arrangement
This collection has eight series: Series 1. Biographical, family, and personal materials, Series 2. Correspondence, Series 3. Correspondence: Anti-Saloon League of North Carolina, Series 4. Financial and legal materials, Series 5. Photographs, Series 6. Speeches, Series 7. Subject files, and Series 8. Writings.
Administrative Information
- Publication Information
- Processed by: John Woodard; machine-readable finding aid created by Apex, 2004
- Revision Description
- Revised by Finley Turner, Stephanie Bennett and Nancy Sullivan, Stephanie Bennett, 2019, 2020, 2021
- Access Restrictions
- This collection is open for use.
- Copyright Notice
- The nature of the WFU Z. Smith Reynolds Library Special Collections and Archives means that copyright or other information about restrictions may be difficult or even impossible to determine despite reasonable efforts. The Archives and Special Collections of ZSR Library claims only physical ownership of most materials. The materials from our collections are made available for use in research, teaching, and private study, pursuant to the U.S. Copyright Law. The user must assume full responsibility for any use of the materials, including but not limited to, infringement of copyright and publication rights of reproduced materials. Any materials used for academic research or otherwise should be fully credited with the source.
- Preferred Citation
- John Alexander Oates Papers (MS144). Z. Smith Reynolds Library Special Collections and Archives, Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem, NC, USA.