Rev. Patrick J. Gleeson

        Rev. Patrick J. Gleeson, pastor of the Roman Catholic Church of SS. Peter and Paul, was born in Ireland in April, 1846. Having received a thorough classical and English education in his native country, he came to America in the fall of 1868. He taught the catholic school of Knoxville, Tenn., soon after his arrival in the country to the close of the school year. In September, 1869, he resumed his studies for the priesthood, entering Mount St. Mary's Seminary of the West, Cincinnati, Ohio. Here he continued the usual course of study of philosophy and theology, and received minor orders, sub-deaconship and deaconship from the Most Rev. John Baptist Purcell, archbishop of Cincinnati, on the Ember Days, in December, 1872. He was ordained priest on January 23, 1873, in the cathedral of Nashville, Tenn., by Most Rev. P. A. Feehan, the bishop of Nashville now archbishop of Chicago. A week later he was sent on his first mission to Clarksville, Tenn. He labored in Montgomery and adjoining counties until transferred to his present charge, arriving in Chattanooga July 18, 1885.
Goodspeed's "History of East Tennessee" 1887