-Death Certificate
BIOGRAPHY, By Sarah Bronson Boden, "Marilla Spink Bates, Marilla Spink lived in Syracuse, New York. Her family's religion was in the Methodist Church, but Marilla wasn't satisfied. She dreamed she saw two missionaries who brought her the true Gospel. About a year later the Mormon elders held a street meeting at which the people planned to rotten egg the missionaries. She went to see the occasion. She saw two priests but they were not the men in her dream. Soon two men came and she recognized them as those in her dream. They were Ormus Ephraim Bates and Orson Pratt. When she heard the message they had she was converted and was baptized in winter when the ice had to be broken. She was 17 years old. Her family never forgave her. She was the only one of the family to join the Church, and she never saw any of her family again. She migrated to Nauvoo, Illinois with the Orson Pratt Company.

Marilla married Ormus Ephraim Bates in [the] Nauvoo Temple. They stayed one year in Winter Quarters and took care of cattle and planted crops. They came to Utah with the Cummings Company. They first lived in Tooele County, then later in Fountain Green, Sanpete County. Some years later the family was called to Brigham City, Arizona near Sunset and St. Joseph (now known as Joe City). They lived the United Order, all ate at one large table. Marilla was called to Mormon Lake to make cheese for the entire County (others were, too). She was a midwife and served in all the communities round about. The order broke up and the Bates family was called to settle Meadows, Arizona. They traveled to Payson City, Utah through heat and later through snow. Their daughter, Marion Bates (Jolly) rode a mule and drove the sheep as they came. Marilla tended the baby, fed and milked the goats. They lived for 15 years at Payson, and also lived at a mining town, Ophir, Utah. Marilla died 17 Feb 1906 after a life of usefulness and service to the Church."