01/19/2026
Happy 147th Birthday, BABE!
In January 1879, in Seville, Ohio, our BABE was born.
He didn't stay long...just long enough to create a wondrous first impression and leave an everlasting legacy on Seville's heritage.
Excerpted from our previous posts:
One of the longest weekends in our history of Seville, Ohio, was the weekend of January 18-19 in 1879. Some might even say the weekend started on January 15 for, according to some of the documentations, that is when the labor pains began…
Before we go further, we set the stage:
The expectant couple in our story are Capt. Martin Van Buren Bates and his wife, Anna Haining Swan Bates, also known as our “Seville Giants”.
The weather on January 18 and 19 in 1879 started off cloudy. The temperature was 35 degrees. There was a mix of rain and snow on the 18th which became a bit clearer and a bit colder on the 19th according to the Cleveland weather published in the Chicago Daily Tribune for these dates.
In 1879 in Seville, there were no electric lights. Illumination came from candles, oil lamps, gas lights or fires. There were no automobiles. Travel was by foot, on horseback, or by horse and buggy. The telephone had just been patented and hadn't found its way to Seville yet. C-section (delivering a baby using a surgical incision) was not common practice and any woman having
such a procedure usually died from surgical infection. Babies were delivered in the homes.
..and now our story continues:
The labor pains that began for Anna on January 15 progressed slowly. On Saturday, January 18, Dr. Beach was summoned to the Bates' s house in the late afternoon. Dr. Beach assessed the situation and, contemplating the need for help, sent a wire to Dr. Robinson of Wooster.
Dr. Robinson arrive on January 19. The doctors tried to deliver the baby using forceps. (Forceps are an instrument like giant tongs or giant-sized tweezers.) The attempt with the forceps failed. Next, they tried pulling the baby using bandages they slipped over the back of the baby's neck.
When the baby boy was finally born on January 19, 1879, he weighed 23 3/4 pounds. He was the size of a 6-month-old at nearly 30 inches long. Each foot was between 5 1/2 and 6 inches long. Capt. Bates remarked that his son was "perfect in every respect".
It was a long weekend.
It was a weekend of great joy.
It was also a weekend of tremendous sorrow for, sadly, the baby lived only 11 hours.
Though his life was short, the giant baby born in Seville, Ohio, is recorded in the Guinness Book of World Records as the largest human live birth known to medical history. It was also believed to have been the first time that a giant and a giant had produced a living giant.
The son of Captain and Anna Bates is buried in Seville's Mound Hill Cemetery. Never named, his gravestone reads simply "BABE".
Visitors from near and far come to see the graves of the Seville Giants: Capt. Martin Van Buren Bates, Anna H. Swan Bates, and BABE. Also with their markers is a stone inscribed "SISTER".
Note: Some people mistakenly assume "SISTER" marks the grave of the baby girl that was born in England. (That baby was dead at birth and the body donated for the study of giantism.) This stone marks the grave of Anna's sister, Maggie, who died while visiting the Bates's at their Seville farm.
Happy Birthday, BABE.
Rest in Peace and know that your story lives on in Seville, Ohio.
For the complete version of the post, scroll back or do a search for "Babe" on our FB page.
Better yet, plan a visit to our Seville Historical Society Museum later this year!
