By Sheelagh Mooney

Margaret Haughery nee Gaffney was born in Carrigallen, Co Leitrim, in 1813. In 1818, after a couple of disastrous years on the small farm on which she lived, her parents William Gaffney and Margaret (nee O’Rourke) emigrated to America with three of their six children.

Their remaining children were to join them as soon they were able to send on the money for the fares.
Their plans went awry, firstly due to extreme weather conditions while on board.

It took a full six months for the ship from Ireland to finally dock in Baltimore by which time disease and starvation had set in amongst the passengers. Kathleen the baby of the family sadly died shortly after the family’s arrival in Baltimore.

William, though ill, prepared for city life quickly securing work as a docker and faithfully sent home the money for the maintenance of the three children still living with relatives in Ireland.
He had almost enough saved to send for these children when in 1822 a bout of yellow fever killed him, and his wife, leaving nine-year-old Margaret alone as her older brother, Kevin, immediately disappeared without trace never to be heard from again.

Margaret was taken into the home of a Mrs. Richards, a Welsh woman who had made the sailing with the Gaffneys, and who was also widowed by the yellow fever epidemic.
There, it seems, Margaret was nothing more than a domestic servant and received no education, never learning to read or write.
However, she did not let that hold her back in life.

In October, 1835, at the age of 21 she married Irish-born Charles Haughery and they moved to New Orleans. But in 1838, after contracting yellow fever, Charles died, followed shortly after by their infant daughter, Frances. At the age of 23, Margaret was once again alone in life. Motivated by this, she decided she would dedicate her life to the plight of widows and orphans, first gaining employment as manager of the Poydras Orphan Asylum which was under the auspices of the Daughters of Charity. Regularly Margaret was known to purchase foodstuffs from her own meagre resources when there was a dearth of supplies at the asylum.

During a further outbreak of yellow fever in New Orleans in the 1850s, Margaret nursed victims and consoled mothers by promising to take care of their orphaned children eventually opening St. Theresa’s Orphan Asylum in New Orleans. She also underwrote the St. Vincent De Paul Infant Asylum which opened in 1862.

Continue reading in this week’s Ireland’s Own