Biography of Stephen Ross Gay, M. D.

Stephen Ross Gay was born in Pike county, Illinois, 1841. He is the son of Stephen and Elizabeth M. Gay, and is the second of a family of six children: John, S. R. (our subject), Florence, Elizabeth, and two who died in infancy, Ulysse and Mary.

Mr. Gay received his early education in the public schools of Pike county, Illinois, and afterward enjoyed the benefit of the instruction of a private teacher. At the age of seventeen he entered the Medical College of St. Louis, under Dr. J. F. Hodgin, one of the foremost physicians of his locality, graduating and receiving his degree in 1861. He then took a post graduate course, receiving his second degree in 1862. After leaving college the Doctor was engaged in the St. Louis Hospital as assistant surgeon. Afterward he entered the service of the Federal government as contract surgeon, where he served until 1864, when he began the practice of medicine in St. Louis, remaining there until the latter part of 1866. Later he moved to Iberia parish, and, with his father, purchased the Belle Grove plantation, which is situated on Bayou Teche, a half mile from Jeannerette. Belle Grove plantation comprises one thousand acres of land, of which six hundred are cultivated in sugar cane. In 1868 Dr. Gay rebuilt his sugar house, which had been partially destroyed during the war, and in 1885 he built refinery, with a capacity for manufacturing fifty thousand pounds of sugar per day. He refines on an average three hundred thousand pounds per annum for himself, and about one million pounds for other planters.

Dr. Gay married, 1886, Miss Agnes Whitworth, a native of Louisiana, and daughter of George W. Whitworth, of whom a sketch appears in this work. To this union have been born two children: Florence (deceased) and Delphine. Dr. Gay is fully alive to the interest of his community. He is at present president of the Jeannerette Building Association, and he is identified with the leading enterprises of the place.

Southwest Louisiana Biographical and Historical, Biographical Section, pp. 112-113. Edited by William Henry Perrin. Published in 1891, by The Gulf Publishing Company.

Pike County, IL., then Iberia Parish, Louisiana Submitted by Mike Miller Source: Southwest Louisiana Biographical and Historical, Biographical Section Date: 24 Oct 1998