JOHN CALVIN GATES of the 14th Missouri Infantry of Company D .Union Army. Civil War Veteran of Monterey County. John Calvin Gates was born in Derby, New Haven County in Connecticut. During the Civil War, according to his headstone inscription, he enlisted into the 14th Missouri Infantry of Company D, his obituary stated it was a Michigan Unit, at the end of the war. He lived in Michigan and Kansas and in 1899 he moved to California, he had no wife on record nor indicated in his obituary. John Calvin Gates died at his residence in New Monterey on July 10th, 1905, his funeral service notice from the Pacific Grove Review newspaper indicated that his internment was in question, with prospects of body transport to Michigan, but his internment was eventually at the El Carmelo Cemetery (see photo) in Pacific Grove, California. John Calvin Gates was a member of the Lucius Fairchild GAR (Grand Army of the Republic) Post # 179, based out of Pacific Grove, California. 

The following is transcriptions from the obituary and funeral notice. 

GATES, JOHN CALVIN (1832-1905) Pacific Grove, El Carmelo Cemetery (Pacific Grove Review July 21, 1905) 

Death of J.C. Gates Died, at his residence in New Monterey, Monterey County, California July 10, 1905, Mr. John C. Gates, aged 73 years and 5 days. 

He was born in Derby, New Haven county, Connecticut, July 5, 1832. In 1834 his father removed his family to Chautauqua County, New York. There his childhood and early manhood were spent. He took up the vocation of teaching, going to the state of Michigan. After a time he fitted himself for a pharmacist establishing himself in the drug business at Benton Harbor, Michigan, where his business career was spent, retiring in 1884. 

The fall of the same year he removed to McPherson County, Kansas, where he remained 15 years. In the winter of 1899 he came to California, where he has since lived. 

Mr. Gates had an honorable record as a soldier in Co. D Western Sharpshooters, a Michigan Regiment, which did good service for the cause of the Union. Those who knew him best appreciated his sterling qualities of character. His record as a business man was marked by honesty, his career in the army by fidelity and as a citizen in time of peace he showed a marked interest in moral reform. 

Pronounced in his conviction, a wide reader and a good citizen, he will be greatly missed. 

Mr. Gates was educated in a Christian home and his whole career was influenced by his early training. 

(Pacific Grove Review 7/14/05) 
Funeral of J.C. Gates 
The funeral of the late J.C. Gates was held in this city from the residence of Miss Cochran, niece of the deceased, on Wednesday afternoon at 3:30 o’clock under the auspices of the Lucius Fairchild Post G.A.R., of which deceased was an honored member. Rev. W.G. Trower of Monterey was the officiating clergyman. The remains were then taken to the undertaking parlors of J.A. Pell, where they will remain until directions are received for their shipment to Michigan.

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