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 and weighed .

Youth and growth

Bates' growth rate jumped at the age of six or seven. At age 12 he was over tall and weighed over .

Civil War

Bates was attending university in Virginia when the

Civil War A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies ...

broke out. He subsequently joined the 5th Kentucky Infantry

Confederate States Army The Confederate States Army, also called the Confederate Army or the Southern Army, was the military land force of the Confederate States of America (commonly referred to as the Confederacy) during the American Civil War (1861–1865), fighting ...

, 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.

Adulthood and first marriage

The marriage of Captain Martin van Buren to Anna Swan

Martin Van Buren Bates and Anna Haining Bates

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 Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

, 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

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, drew thousands of people trying to attend, due to both the uncommonness of the spectacle and the couple's disarming good nature.

Queen Victoria Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria; 24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until Death and state funeral of Queen Victoria, her death in 1901. Her reign of 63 years and 21 ...

gave Bates an engraved watch, and gave Swan a satin gown and diamond ring. They moved to Ohio in 1872, settling in

Seville Seville (; es, Sevilla, ) is the capital and largest city of the Spanish autonomous community of Andalusia and the province of Seville. It is situated on the lower reaches of the River Guadalquivir, in the southwest of the Iberian Peninsula ...

. On 19 May 1872, Anna gave birth to a daughter, who weighed and died at birth. They built a large house to accommodate themselves comfortably. Martin described the next few years in his autobiography: Bates grave

Final years

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, and lived a mostly peaceful life until his death in 1919 of

nephritis Nephritis is inflammation of the kidneys and may involve the glomeruli, tubules, or interstitial tissue surrounding the glomeruli and tubules. It is one of several different types of nephropathy. Types * Glomerulonephritis is inflammation of th ...

. He was buried beside his first wife and their son in Seville. 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.

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