Museum Monday: West Chicago’s Own - John Warne Gates
During this America 250 Anniversary year there is much talk about people who played in an important role in the shaping of the United States as we know it today, but there is one man who is often left out of the “Men Who Built America” discussions and he was born right here in West Chicago. John Warne Gates was the wealthiest son of Turner, West Chicago’s first name, and although area newspapers even recently reported he was born in Winfield, he was actually born in Winfield township, just south of the growing town of Turner. We hope you enjoy reading a little more about Gates here and will join us Wednesday, May 13th at 6:30pm to hear about his lasting legacies and family from author Archie Bentz.
John Warne Gates was born in Turner in 1855. His mother, Mary Warne Gates was born in New Jersey to a long-time New Englander family that moved out west with the large group that came to this area in the 1830s. Her family lived in Big Woods, now the western edge of Warrenville. John’s father, Asel Gates, was a native of Illinois and a veteran of the Blackhawk War. In October of 1843 John’s parents were married at Gary’s Mill settlement. The couple were part of the Methodist congregation that centered around Gary’s Mill.
John was one of five children and the Gates family lived on a farm just south of Turner. The home still stands on the northwest corner of Forest and Route 59 in West Chicago.
John got his education at Gary’s Mill School and yearned to find work that would take him off the family farm. He tried his hand at many ventures, most failing miserably, but he pushed on, always willing to wager whatever he had. He was quickly known as a gambler, in business and in poker games with the railroad men who would gather in downtown Turner Junction after work. John decided to make an honest living after falling in love. The woman that would change his life forever and change the fortunes of West Chicago, was known as the “Belle of St. Charles,” Dellora Baker. After John met Dellora, the couple quickly got engaged and he sought to make enough money for them to have a comfortable life, perhaps never dreaming of the fortunes he would amass. He enrolled in classes at Wheaton College and eventually graduated from North Central College in 1876. That same year, after saving up enough money he opened his first business right here in downtown Turner, a hardware store. His store was at the corner of Main and Galena in a building his father had built. He and Dellora lived up stairs.
In the hardware store he quickly showed promise as a businessman and accepted an offer to sell barbed wire for Isaac Ellwood, whose large estate still stands in DeKalb, Illinois, as the Ellwood House Museum. To succeed at selling barbed-wire, John had to travel, and travel he did. He found great success demonstrating the benefits of barbed wire in Texas, selling to rancher after rancher. He quickly became top salesmen and struck out on his own, opening his own barbed wire manufacturing plant. After acquiring competitor after competitor, he became the world’s largest barbed wire manufacturer and everyone learned the name Bet-A-Million Gates. He continued to bet on industries and in the stock market, sometimes winning and sometimes losing big. He helped form the Texas Company, later renamed Texaco. John made a fortune in steel and oil, and perhaps with a little swaying from his wife, turned his back on West Chicago. He moved his parents off the Gates farm to a comfortable and imposing home in her native St. Charles. He helped shape New York City alongside other Gilded Age Millionaires, and with his fortune he built up the town of Port Arthur, Texas.
The only known investment he put back into his hometown was in 1904 when he had a Gates family monument built in our Oakwood Cemetery on behalf of his siblings, who had all died early in life. The monument still stands there in the cemetery, but no family members are actually buried there. When John and Dellora passed away their wealth passed to their son and to Dellora’s brother Edward Baker. Gates’ vast amount of money was passed down through the Baker family and helped build the Norris Cultural Arts Center, St. Charles High School, the Baker Memorial Methodist Church, Hotel Baker and the former Delnor Hospital. Oh what a celebration that would have been to have had those things all built here in West Chicago!
Come hear the full story on May 13.
Author Archie L. Bentz Jr. will present and sign copies of his book Bet-A-Million Gates: The Man History Forgot at the Fox Community Center on Wednesday, May 13, 2026 at 6:30 PM.
The event is free and open to the public — no registration required.
Questions? Reach us at wegohistory@gmail.com.
