Born in Amherst County, Virginia, William Edmunds Bates was licensed in Kentucky in 1843 as a Methodist minister, came to Texas in 1851, and settled in Denton County. Appointed in 1853 to the 300-square-mile Dallas circuit, he traveled it once a month. Admitted in 1854 to the East Texas Conference, he founded churches at Montague, Pilot Point, Denton, Jacksboro, and Gainesville, and was very influential in planting Methodism in North Texas. He married Susan Wright, and they had ten children.