MargaretHaughery (née Gaffney) is known as the “Mother of the Orphans” in New Orleans. She was a businesswoman and philanthropist who left a legacy of love, especially for orphanages in New Orleans.
Haughery was born on December 25, 1813, in Tully, Co.
Leitrim, Ireland. Her parents were William Gaffney and Margaret O’Rourke. The
family struggled with economic instability and agricultural failures within Ireland’s
agricultural system, so they emigrated to Baltimore, Maryland, in 1818.
Both of Haughery’s parents died during the yellow fever
epidemic in 1822. Her care was taken over by a Welsh family who were on the same
vessel she came to the States on. The family was too poor to send her to school.
She was destitute and illiterate, so she entered domestic service, which was a
common trajectory for Irish immigrants of that time.
She married fellow Irish immigrant Charles Haughery in 1835.
To help Charles’s failing health, the couple moved to New Orleans. In a short
period of time, Haughery’s husband and infant daughter died, leaving her alone
at age 23.
Her career that followed defied socio-economic limits that
were placed on women at this time. She became a laundress at St. Charles Hotel,
which allowed her to save some money, despite her modest earnings.
With these savings, she began a small commercial dairy that evolved
into a 40-cow operation. She was responsible for managing milk distribution
across New Orleans. Not only was she able to gain financial independence, but she
was also able to subsidize the food needs of local orphanages that were run by
the Sisters of Charity.
Haughery was able to diversify her ventures in 1858 by
purchasing a bakery in need. She renamed it “Margaret’s Bakery,” and under her
management, she modernized it. It became the first steam-powered industrial
baking facility in the American South.
She used the revenues from both her dairy and bakery
ventures to finance social infrastructure, including St. Elizabeth’s Orphan
Asylum, St. Vincent’s Infant Asylum, and St. Teresa’s Church. Haughery’s philanthropy
was non-sectarian and apolitical.
During the Civil War, she violated military curfews to give
provisions to civilians and soldiers on both sides of the war. Throughout her
giving, she was guided to aid in people’s need, regardless of a person’s
allegiance.
Haughery died of carcinoma on February 9, 1882. Her funeral
was attended by crucial civic leaders, including two governors from Louisiana.
Her final act of philanthropy was leaving behind an estate of approximately $500,000 to be given to Catholic, Protestant,
and Jewish orphanages.
In 1884, New Orleans dedicated a Carrara marble monument to
Haughery in Margaret Place Part. This monument is one of the earliest public
statues in the United States that honors a female historical figure. Her
birthplace in Tully has been preserved, which serves as a physical link between
Ireland and the United States. It shows how the Irish diaspora shaped American
civic development.