GAY, S. R., M. D.; Pike County, IL., then Iberia Parish, Louisiana
Submitted by Mike Miller
Source: Southwest Louisiana Biographical and Historical, Biographical
Section

 


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S. R. GAY, M. D., JEANNERETTE.--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.