About Lockhaven Golf Club

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William was born of Pennsylvania Dutch extraction about 1757 and spoke German as his first language.  Though unable to read or write, he was able to make a living at various locations by owning farms.  He was small of stature and was aware of his shortcomings, desiring his heirs to be better educated than he was.

From his application for a military pension filed in April 1832.  He served in the North Carolina Militia.  Once while guarding British prisoners at Salisbury.  

Bates noted that he enlisted for the term of eighteen months in March of 1781 in a North Carolina Company commanded by Captain Dixon under the command of General Greene, and that he served until December 1782 or January 1783 when he was discharged at Wilmington, N.C.

After the War, he married Elizabeth Moore.  The Moore and Bates families were friends of Daniel Boone to whom credit is given for their 1802 migration from N.C. to Kentucky where they remained until 1808 when they began to follow Boone to Missouri. 

 Seeking a place to settle on high ground, they picked a site on Wood River Creek near where the Alton State Hospital now stands and where two of William's grandsons were victims of the 1814 Wood River Massacre.  About 1817 the family moved to the mouth of Piasa Creek on land that is now part of Lockhaven Country Club and built a log cabin.  It is thought that they were the first white settlers in that area of Madison County which became Greene County in 1821 and then Jersey County in 1839.

William died in February 1848 and is buried alongside three of his five wives near the original site of the Piasa Creek homestead.