California Biographies, San Joaquin Valley

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. MICHAEL McNAMARA. Among the pioneers of California worthy of special mention in this 
work is Rev. Michael McNamara, who has had charge of St. Patrick's Church, in Merced, for 
upward of thirty years. A man of deep religious devotion, and of extreme earnestness of 
purpose, he has performed noble work in this section of the state, building up good 
congregations in different localities, and everywhere elevating the moral and religious status of 
his people. He is finely educated, familiar with the classics, a philosopher and a theologian and a 
noted student of history. He was born, March 19, 1837, in the parish of Croom, County Limerick, 
Ireland, being the second child in a family of ten children born of the union of Thomas and Nora 
(Joyce) McNamara, who were life-longresidents of the parish of Croom, County Limerick, and 
respected members of the farming community. 

Brought up in Limerick, Michael McNamara obtained his classical education partly in Killmallock, 
Giarleville and in the Jesuit Seminary of Limerick, after which he studied theology at St. John's 
College, in Waterford, County Waterford, Ireland. In June, 1870, by the Bishop of Australia, he 
was ordained in the college for the diocese of San Francisco, and at once started for California. 
After spending a short time at St. Mary's Cathedral in San Francisco, Father McNamara began 
his missionary labors, going first to Mariposa to look after St. Joseph's Church and its people. He 
subsequently organized a parish on Bear creek, at present the city of Merced, where, in 1873, 
he was successful in establishing a Catholic Church. Since 1875 he has made his residence in 
Merced, but long continued to attend the church in Mariposa, and in other places. At Los 
Banos, he took up contributions for the building of the church there, which were afterward 
turned over to the Los Angeles and Monterey diocese. In his work along this western frontier, 
he endured all the hardships and privations of the early pioneers, traveling by stage over rough 
roads, walking long distances through the mountain districts, making his own pathway in many 
cases, and fording streams oftentimes ; sleeping wherever night overtook him, be it in cabin, 
tent, or with no roof between him and the firmament on high. Father McNamara is connected 
with various church societies, and is an honorary member of the Young Men's Institute.