Santa
Clara County
Biographies
REV. P. MCGUIRE
As an agency for the betterment of a thrifty
community the church of St. Patrick at San Jose fulfills the prophecy of its
founder and builder, Rev. Father P. J. Dowling. Erected in 1878, the few souls
which gathered within its portals at the time heralded the dawn of increasing
activity, and as years passed, and Father Dowling continued his able ministry,
members were added who worked in unison with the great plan of the well known
Salt Lake City missionary. Father Dowling lived a life of great austerity and
self-sacrifice, and his death in the early ‘90s filled with sorrow the many
hearts which had come to look upon him as their spiritual guide.
Following upon the death of Father
Dowling an equally zealous pastor was called to administer the affairs of St.
Patrick’s Church, Rev. P. McGuire, whose noble character and ability have won
him the sincere regard of his congregation, as well as the esteem and
friendship of many who differ with him in religious faith. Father McGuire was
born near Kingston, Ontario, where his father, Thomas, was a farmer. About 1856
the family removed to the then pioneer locality near Des Moines, Iowa, and
after the war settled on a farm near Topeka, Kans. Pioneers of Iowa also was the
family of William Judge, whose daughter, Elizabeth, was the mother of Father
McGuire. She was the mother also of five other children, all of whom are
living, the pastor of St. Patrick’s being the eldest and only one on the
Pacific coast.
Father McGuire was reared on the
farms in Iowa and Kansas, and when sixteen years old entered the classical
school at Topeka, completing the course in about five years. He then entered
St. Mary’s Theological Seminary at Baltimore, and was ordained to the
priesthood in 1875, his first charge being as assistant pastor of St. Mary’s
church (sic) in Denver, Colo. A year later he came to California as assistant
at various places in the state, and for nine years was rector of the church at
Modesto, coming to his present charge in 1894, and directly succeeding Father
Dowling. At the present time the congregation of St. Patrick’s Church numbers
fourteen hundred, and the societies and general work of the church are in a
flourishing condition. The energy and large heart of the pastor is vitalizing
and contagious, and the least optimistic could not fail to believe in a future
of increasing usefulness.
Transcribed By: Cecelia M. Setty.
Source: History of the State of California & Biographical Record of Coast
Counties, California by Prof. J. M. Guinn, A. M., Pages 1230-1231. The
Chapman Publishing Co., Chicago, 1904.
© 2016 Cecelia M. Setty.