In the dining room of Oak Glen Cottages one day in 1885, two young men were deeply involved in choosing up sides. They were to be captains of opposing teams in the great Ojai Valley Hunt and were charged with the responsibility of selecting the hunters and hunting areas for each side, deciding on the date and hour of departure for the hunt, and assigning the number of points to be awarded for each type of game. The side with the smallest number of points was to pay for the supper of all the participants the following evening at the Oak Glen Cottages.

     At sundown on the day of the hunt, the billiard room of the cottages was piled high with deer, wild geese, and many varieties of smaller game, which the Chinese cook Gin Soo was to use in his preparation of the banquet the following evening.

     Remembering the event, Mrs. Gally, wife of the proprietor of the Oak Glen Cottages, writes in her Cherished Memories that “110 plates were laid, and every family in the two valleys [upper and lower Ojai] and Matilija was represented . . . . After everyone had sampled as many kinds of game as possible, the first ice cream to be served in the valley was brought in, and there was great excitement among the young people, who had never tasted it before . . . .”

     “Good old Soo thought sure death would follow close upon the heels of the ice cream eaters, and we had trouble keeping him from passing around the whiskey, at least to the women and children.” So was the gaiety that was associated with the Oak Glen Cottages, then the social center of the valley.

     The sudden death of the proprietor, B.W. Gally, in 1893 came as a shock to everyone in the valley, and many wondered if those happy social gatherings were at an end. But, Mr. Gally’s widow, the valiant and resourceful Mary Gally, mother of three small sons, determined to carry on by herself. She advertised in the paper that in order to avoid confusion with other establishments using the word “oak” in their names, the Oak Glen Cottages would henceforth be officially known by the name the local residents had always called them---Gally Cottages.

     The stagecoach line to Ventura, that her husband had maintained, she sold to the Clark Brothers Livery Service; and then she courageously took over every detail of maintaining the Gally Cottages as an outstanding hostelry. She put out the first brochure advertising the cottages and the attractions of the Ojai Valley, many of the pictures of that brochure being used in a later publication in 1908, by the Nordhoff Board of Trade to advertise the valley.

     The register of the Gally Cottages, listing its guests from 1881 to 1906, is treasured by her son and daughter-in-law, Howard and Agnes Gally, and shows the wide variety of its clientele. Locally we find the names of Thachers, Soules, Waites, Robinsons, Ayers, Clarks, Montgomerys, Gibsons and Van Curens, along with many others. From nearby communities came Bards, Balckstocks, Sheridans, Blanchards, Storkes, Shepards (who were careful to write “Shepard’s Inn” after their names) and Harrison Gray Otis.

     From San Francisco came the California historian H.H. Bancroft, from Chico the pioneer settler John Bidwell; and the name of Charles Nordhoff, for whom the town [now Ojai] was named, appears on various occasions. Such names as “Count and Countess Monchesi of Parma, Italy” lend atmosphere to the register. All apparently joined in picnics, excursions, horseback rides and drives planned for the guests by the management.

     Unexpected misfortune came to Gally Cottages, when its famous cook Gin Soo returned to China for a visit, and because of immigration restrictions was unable to re-enter the United States. Largely as a result of this, the hotel buildings were eventually converted into housekeeping cottages, with Mary Gally occupying one as her home. She lived until 1953, dying at the age of 99.