California Biographies

Transcribed by Peggy Hooper

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

Source:
History of the state of California and biographical record of the San Joaquin 
Valley, California. An historical story of the state's marvelous growth from 
its earliest settlement to the present time.
Prof. James Miller Guinn , A. M.
The Chapman Publishing Co., Chicago 1905
Notes: Missing Page: 865-866,983-984,1175-1176


REV. PETER GERALD GAY. During the days when Oliver Cromwell wrested England's 
scepter from monarchical sway and established a reformation far-reaching in its influence, the 
Gay family were established in Ireland, where the possession of large landed estates made them 
a power among the gentry. Tradition indicates that they belonged to Huguenot blood and his- 
toric evidences point to their French extraction. John Gay, who was the owner of the large estate 
known as Gay Brook, situated in the county of Westmeath, near Mullingar, held a position of 
influence in that part of Ireland, and was an acknowledged leader in his community. Among 
his children was a son, John Gay, who was born and reared on the family estate and received 
his education in Royal College, graduating with the degree of M. D., after which he acted as a 
steamship surgeon. A fortunate chance, brought about by his recognized ability both as physician 
and scientist, made him an associate of Dr. Kane in important explorations in various sections of 
India, where he engaged in professional practice, and he was also located for a time at Cape Town, 
Cape Colony, Africa, and in Australia. After extended travels and researches in many lands 
he returned to Ireland and took up the practice of medicine and surgery in Dublin. Since his 
retirement from professional work he has devoted his time to scientific researches in the quiet 
of his beautiful country place four miles from Ireland's capital city. During early manhood 
he chose as his wife Mary Reed, who was born at Carrick Fergus, County Down, Ireland, and 
traces her lineage to a Scotch family. In County Down her father, David Reed, was born and 
reared, and there he engaged in the manufacture of cordage. The commercial aptitude which he 
possessed, and which brought him a fair share of prosperity, came to him less from inheritance 
than from education and experience. Many of his male ancestors were educators and philoso- 
phers and the family talents were toward such studies and professions rather than toward com- 
merce and worldly gain. 

In a family originally comprising seventeen children (nine of whom now survive) Peter 
Gerald Gay was among the younger members and he alone has sought a home in America. He 
was born in Dublin on New Year's day of 1874. As a boy he attended the Christian Brothers 
school in Dublin and later took up the study of the classics in Black Rock College, Dublin. From 
there he was sent to St. Michael's Priory, at Farnborough, Hampshire, England, where for 
a time he acted as guardian of the crypt where lies Napoleon III and all that is mortal of the 
beloved and ill-fated Prince Louis, the Prince Imperial of France during the days of the empire. 
The priory where he was a student owed its existence and support to the benevolence of 
Empress Eugenie, who in the days of age and loneliness devotes her thoughts to religion and 
charity. It was his good fortune to study theology and philosophy under the celebrated orator 
Pere Guillme, and the confessor of Eugenie, Pere Ibos. On leaving the priory in 1893 he 
entered upon practical mission work as an assistant to Father Bannon in the slums of Lon- 
don. A year late-r, with faith deepened by the difficulties of his city labors, he returned to Dub- 
lin to continue his studies. 

On coming to America in 1895 Father Gay traveled through various portions of the States 
and then matriculated in St. John's University, at Collegeville, Minn., where he was ordained, 
June 21, 1897, by Bishop McGolrich of Duluth, to the ministry of the Roman Catholic Church 
in appointment to the diocese of Los Angeles and Monterey. For a time he was stationed in 
the Cathedral at Los Angeles and afterward acted as an assistant in different parishes of the 
diocese, also served as pastor pro tern, of the congregations at Pasadena, Santa Barbara, Santa 
Cruz and Fresno. A later and very important task was the building up of the parish and 
church at Santa Paula, Cal., including the renowned mission of Camulos, whose history is 
interwoven with much of the romance and adventure of early Californian days. In officiating 
at a marriage ceremony in the Del Valle family, owners of the famous mission, he used the vest- 
ments that had been in possession of the family for more than two centuries. Other missions 
of which he had charge were Newhall, Ravenna and Lancaster. August 11, 1904, he was ap- 
pointed to St. Mary's Church in Visalia, where he has the supervision of an important parish 
and also attends St. Aloysius at Tulare, Sultana and Dinuba. At this writing the parish at 
Dinuba is erecting a new house of worship, the supervision of which remains in his charge. The 
edifice at Visalia is substantial and commodious, with admirable facilities for religious services. 
From the days of Father Dade, its first pastor, to the present time, the church has wielded a 
potent influence upon the lives of the parishioners. Not only is the congregation one of the 
first established by the Roman Catholics in the San Joaquin valley, but it also has been one of 
the most influential and prosperous, and the work of its various pastors, culminating in the success 
of the present incumbent of the pastorate, has been of a high order both from a temporal and 
spiritual standpoint, contributing to the religious development of Tulare county and to the wel- 
fare especially of such as are identified with its communion.