WB Charlie Gay

Brother Charlie Gay

Born: 1837

Death: Mar. 2, 1916,

Laid to rest at Highland View Cemetery, Big Rapids, Michigan, USA

Brother Gay was a Mason for 55 years.

Charlie Gay first became a Mason at the Newaygo Masonic Lodge #131 on November 11th 1861 at the age of 24 years old, and when the Big Rapids Lodge #171 received it's charter in 1865, Brother Gay became one of the founders and the fourth entry registered in the Big Rapids Lodge membership ledger (which actually is the same ledger used today for new Master Masons), Brother Gay signed it on January 26th of 1865. Brother Gay became the Worshipful Master of the Big Rapids Lodge #171 in 1867 and 1868, then again in 1878, 1879, 1880, 1881, and 1882. Those weren't the only years Brother Gay was the Worshipful Master, again in 1884, the same year that Ferris Industrial School was formed. He stayed on as Worshipful Master for 1885, 1886 and 1887.

About Charlie Gay

The veteran editor and founder of the Big Rapids Pioneer, Charlie Gay, is not only one of the oldest active journalists in Michigan, but one of the prominent citizens of the state, and probably has been as influential in moulding public opinion and upholding the best standards of civic morality and promoting business prosperity in Mecosta county as any other one man.

Charlie Gay was born at Cuyahoga Falls, Summit county, Ohio, November 12, 1837. The common and graded schools afforded him a substantial elementary education, but he left at the age of fifteen and began a more practical career in a printing office at Warren, Ohio, where he soon became proficient, not only as an old-style compositor, but in the different details of newspaper management and editorial and news writing. In 1856, when less than twenty years of age, Charlie Gay came to Newaygo, Michigan, and spent six years in the office of the Newaygo Republican. Settlement and development were proceeding rapidly in western Michigan at that time, and in 1862, in view of the prospects of Big Rapids, Mr. Gay took a survey of that field with the idea of establishing a county journal. On the 17th of April, 1862, was issued the initial number of the Mecosta county Pioneer. His newspaper was begun at a momentous time, when the country was in the throes of the Civil war, and when every business enterprise was more or less uncertain.

Mr. Gay started his paper, not as a rank partisan journal, but under the sterling motto "The Union, the constitution, and the enforcement of the laws," principles which he faithfully exemplified as long as those ideals were the most vital in the existence of community or nation. He also made himself and his paper a vigorous influence for the promotion of local prosperity, and as advancement along every line, and an examination of early files of the Pioneer shows that the community had an exceptional record for moral cleanliness, and in this the journal was one of the most valuable factors.

The Pioneer was the first paper published in Mecosta county, and until August 1, 1867, was issued in a folio of twelve columns. It was Vol. HI—31 then enlarged by two additional columns, and in 1870 increased in the same proportion, becoming a paper of nine columns. In July, 1874, its press style was converted to a seven column quarto, and at this time the title was changed to the Big Rapids Pioneer. On August 1, 1881, the paper was first issued as a daily, and the daily and weekly editions have since continued. The Pioneer has, for more than fifty years, been conducted in accordance with the principles on which it was established, and has won a position second to none in the state, measured by its size and the country which it normally serves and influences. In the editorial policies of the paper there is nothing vacillating, nor undetermined, and the readers are never left to guess at the position held by the paper in its editorial expression.

Mr. Gay has a long record of public service. In the spring of 1869 he was elected the first recorder of the city of Big Rapids, and in 1870 was elected to the office of county clerk, a post he held eight consecutive years. He was town clerk from 1864 to 1869, excepting one year, and was justice of the peace from the organization of the township until 1869. Politically he cast his first vote for Abraham Lincoln in i860 and has been a radical and positive Republican, both as a private citizen and as a newspaper man, ever since. His wife has lived in Big Rapids as long as he has, since the spring of 1862. In the earlier years she was prominent in social affairs, and is an active worker in the Order of the Eastern Star, both she and her husband having Masonic affiliations. Mr. Gay and wife have one daughter, Mrs. W. E. Hoit, of Big Rapids, and one son, Fred, of Berkeley, California. There are also four grandchildren.