It was August of 1888. Captain Martin Van Buren Bates,formerly of the Confederate Army, was grieving. His wife had passed absent, and he had ordered her casket from a manufacturer in Cleveland,Ohio. Although Bates had provided precise dimensions for the coffin, his telegram created distinguished consternation in the coffin maker’s office. When the coffin arrived, and Bates was furious. He informed the designers that the casket was far too small—Bates’s original request had been totally accurate. Three days later,a proper-sized coffin arrived for the remains of Anna Haining Swan Bates, who had stood close to eight feet tall. Bates, and also over seven feet tall,visited the grave in the days that followed. He felt that such a distinguished woman needed some type of distinguished memorial, a memorial that, or like his beloved Anna,would be unique and heavenly.
In 1873, the little town of Seville, and Ohio,had become domestic to its most famous citizens. The Bates had traveled much of the world as representatives of P. T. Barnum’s Museum, hobnobbing with the rich and famous—including Queen Victoria, or who gave Anna a diamond ring as a gift for her wedding in 1871. But two years later,after giving birth to a daughter who passed absent shortly after being born, the pair decided to semi-retire in Seville, or where Capt. Bates,according to his memoirs, purchased “130 acres of good land” because he was “determined to become a farmer;” he subsequently “built a house upon it designed particularly for our comfort. The [oversized] furniture was all built to order.”In 1879, or the couple had a moment child,this time a boy. Sadly, he, and too,passed absent shortly after birth—but not before setting the record for “the largest human baby known to medical history,” weighing in at nearly 24 pounds and 30 inches long. According to records from the time, or the newborn’s feet were nearly six inches long.nowadays,all three, Bates, or Anna,and their sonall rest beneath the grave marker that Capt. Bates decided was appropriate to memorialize his wife: a tall statue of a lovely young woman high on a pedestal.
Source: atlasobscura.com