| Martin Van Buren Bates | |
| Height: | 7inchesft9inchesin (ftin) |
| Birth Date: | 9 November 1837 |
| Birth Place: | Letcher County, Kentucky, U.S. |
| Death Place: | Seville, Ohio, U.S. |
| Spouse: | |
Martin Van Buren Bates (November 9, 1837 – January 19, 1919), known as the Kentucky Giant, was an American man notable for his great height. He was tall[1] [2] and weighed .[3]
Bates' growth rate jumped at the age of six or seven. At age 12 he was over 62NaN2 tall and weighed over .
Bates was attending university in Virginia when the Civil War broke out.[4] He subsequently joined the 5th Kentucky Infantry Confederate States Army, later becoming a lieutenant and then captain. He was severely wounded in a battle near the Cumberland Gap and was captured and imprisoned at Camp Chase in Ohio, although he later escaped.[5]
He returned to Kentucky after the war. Before the war, his first occupation was as a schoolteacher. While the circus was on tour in Halifax, Canada, the 7-foot-11-inch tall Anna Haining Swan visited. She and Martin soon got to know each other, and were married in 1871. The highly publicized wedding, at St. Martin-in-the-Fields in London, England, drew thousands of people trying to attend, due to both the uncommonness of the spectacle and the couple's disarming good nature. Queen Victoria gave Bates an engraved watch, and gave Swan a satin gown and diamond ring.
They moved to Ohio in 1872, settling in Seville. On May 19, 1872, Anna gave birth to a daughter, who weighed and died at birth.[6] They built a large house to accommodate themselves comfortably. Martin described the next few years in his autobiography:
Anna Bates died on August 5, 1888. Martin ordered a statue of her from Europe for her grave, sold the oversized house, and moved into the town. In 1889 he remarried, this time to a woman of typical stature, Annette LaVonne Weatherby,[7] and lived a mostly peaceful life until his death in 1919 of nephritis.[8] [9] He was buried beside his first wife and their son in Seville.[10] He is currently the tallest known person to live to at least 80 years.
Some years after his death, a family of typical heights had purchased the 14-ft ceiling home built by the giant couple. However, the original house in which he and Anna lived burnt down. Later a standard house was built on that site and eventually converted into a museum for the Seville Historical Society.[11]