California Biographies

Source: History of Fresno County, California, with biographical sketches of 
the leading men and women of the county who have been identified with 
its growth and development from the early days to the present (1919)

History By Paul E. Vandor 
Illustrated, Complete In Two Volumes 
Historic Record Company, Los Angeles, California, 1919
 
Notes: Missing+page1185-1186

Transcribed by Peggy Hooper

This file is part of the California Genealogy & History Archives 
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cagha/index.htm


REV. E. MOLLOY, C. S. S. R. � A learned, benevolent and distinguished 
representative of the Roman Catholic clergy, who occupies an honored position 
in the religious life of Fresno and Fresno County, is the Rev. E. Molloy, the be- 
loved head of St. Alphonsus Church, parish school and convent at Fresno. 

He was born in Newfoundland on November 13, 1881, and his father, John 
Molloy, was likewise a native of that picturesque and historic region. He taught 
school for thirty years at Gussett's Cove, Conception Bay, and his memory, as that 
of a model schoolmaster, is still revered there. The mother was Charlotte Murphy 
before her marriage, and she was also a native of Newfoundland. John Molloy 
and his wife had seven children � six boys and a girl � six of whom grew to 
maturity; and four of the sons and the daughter are still living. In 1901, the 
parents moved to Boston, and there, in February, 1918, the father died at the 
age of eighty-six years. He was an exceptionally mild and modest man, full of love 
and benevolence ; and he continued to be called "the Master" unto the day of his 
death. Mrs. Molloy is still living, eighty-eight years old. 

Reverend Molloy commenced his studies under his father, then at Sarsfield 
school, in Montreal, where he was graduated, after which he entered the Loyola 
Jesuit College on Richmond Street, Montreal, in 1896, where he started his 
classics and continued until June, 1898. That fall he entered the Redemptorist 
Junior Seminary at Kirkwood, near St. Louis, Mo., and in June, 1900, was gradu- 
ated from the classical course. After fifteen months of novitiate at the Redemp- 
torist Novitiate at Kansas City, Mo., he was duly professed on August 15, 1902, 
whereupon he entered the higher Redemptorist Seminary at De Soto, Mo., and 
there pursued courses in philosophy, dogmatic and moral theology. On May 20. 
1908, he was ordained in St. Alphonsus Church, St. Louis, by Rt. Rev. Arch- 
bishop Glennon, when he spent another eighteen months in the further study of 
theology and special preparation for the Missions. 

On November 11, 1909, Father Molloy arrived in California and became an 
assistant to Father Henry Weber, who built St. Alphonsus' Church, and the 
Parish House at Fresno; and in 1915 Father Molloy succeeded him as Superior 
and Rector. The Church owns two blocks of land, 300x375 feet in size on 
Kearney Avenue and Trinity Street upon which the Church Parish House and 
School are located, while the Sisters' Convent is in the block to the east. The 
object of the future is to make this an educational center and the plan is to build 
a Boys' College and Boarding School. 

In 1916, Father Molloy built St. Alphonsus' School, where instruction is 
given in the eight grammar school grades, and a business or commercial course 
as well as a musical course is provided. The teachers are Sisters of the Order 
of the Holy Cross, and are graduated from the University of Indiana, at Notre 
Dame. The Sisters' Convent was founded at the same time that the school was 
started by Father Molloy. Connected with the St. Alphonsus charge are the two 
outside missions of Clovis and Sanger, both in Fresno County, and to carry on 
this work nine priests and two lay brothers reside at the Parish House of St. 
Alphonsus. They also give Missions in various sections of California, Nevada 
and Arizona. 

During the late War drives, Father Molloy was one of the "Four-Minute 
Speakers" working under the direction of the Committee on Public Information 
at Washington, and being popular, as a devoted citizen of Fresno, his influence 
in the arousing and sustaining of patriotic, unselfish sentiment was potent. He 
was only perpetuating a tradition of the Molloy family, however, for his grand- 
parents were known, with their families, as among the sturdiest and most loyal 
of Newfoundland pioneers.