Apparently the statue survived Katrina. Margaret Gaffney Haughery monument at Margaret Place, Prytania and Camp streets in Lower Garden District. New Orleans, Louisiana, June 22, 2006 can be viewed at: http://www.asergeev.com/pictures/archives/compress/2006/533/10.htm More information: As military commander of New Orleans, during the US Civil War, General Butler met one of the city's notable citizens, Margaret Gaffney Haughery. Margaret Gaffney was born in Killasandra, County Cavan, Ireland. Her mother was Margaret O'Rourke, and her father was William Gaffney. The family emigrated to the United States in 1818. By 1822 both parents were dead of yellow fever. Margaret was nine years old. She was cared for by a Jesuit priest, Father McElroy. He was assisted in this care by a Mrs. Richards. In 1835, Margaret Gaffney married Irish born Charles Haughery. He took her to New Orleans. On a later trip back to Ireland, Charles Haughery died. A few months later the only child of the marriage died as well. Margaret Haughery worked in a laundry to support herself. She later went to work at the Poydras Orphan Asylum. She was 23 years old at the time. She solicited funds for the orphans. Mary Gaffney was a very effective money raiser. She was so effective, other Poydras orphanages were opened. Mary Gaffney was rewarded for her efforts with a position in the administration of the orphanages. Besides her administrative duties, Margaret Haughery maintained a dairy herd of 40 cows to provide the orphanage children milk. She sold surplus milk to help raise funds for the orphanages. In 1859, Margaret Haughery became the owner of the later famous Klotz Cracker Factory. It was operated by her adopted son, Bernard Klotz. Margaret Haughery is credited with being the first to offer packaged crackers. The success of the diary and the crackers financed the needs of the orphanages. When Benjamin Franklin Butler occupied the city and set up martial law in 1862, he set up barriers and curfews. No one in New Orleans was to pass these barriers or be outside past the hours of the curfew. Margaret Haughery distributed food and milk to the needy outside those lines. She continued to do so after the barriers were set up. General Butler ordered her to appear before him. He admonished her to stay behind the lines and told her she would be shot or hung if she crossed them again. Margaret Haughery asked the general if it was President Lincoln's will to starve the poor? General Butler is said to have replied "You are not to go through the picket lines without my permission, is that clear?" "Quite clear" answered Margaret. To which Butler is said to have responded "You have my permission." Margaret Haughery continued her mission work throughout the Civil War and until her death in 1882. The City of New Orleans erected a statue of Margaret Haughey, one of the first statues in the United States to honor a woman. (http://celticcowboycompany.com/CSATX3.htm) Margaret Haughery Margaret Haughery, "the mother of the orphans", as she was familiarly styled, b. in Cavan, Ireland, about 1814; d. at New Orleans, Louisiana, 9 February, 1882. Her parents, Charles and Margaret O'Rourke Gaffney, died at Baltimore, Maryland, in 1822 and she was left to her own resources and was thus deprived of acquiring a knowledge of reading and writing. A kind-hearted family of Welsh extraction sheltered the little orphan in their home. In 1835 she there married Charles Haughery and went to New Orleans with him. Within a year her husband and infant died. It was then she began her great career of charity. She was employed in the orphan asylum and when the orphans were without food she bought it for them from her earnings. The Female Orphan Asylum of the Sisters of Charity built in 184O was practically her work, for she cleared it of debt. During the yellow fever epidemic in New Orleans in the fifties she went about from house to house, without regard to race or creed, nursing the victims and consoling the dying mothers with the promise to look after their little ones. St. Teresa's Church was practically built by Margaret, in conjunction with Sister Francis Regis. Margaret first established a dairy and drove around the city delivering the milk herself; afterwards she opened a bakery, and for years continued her rounds with the bread cart. Although she provided for orphans, fed the poor, and gave enormously in charity, her resources grew wonderfully and Margaret's bakery (the first steam bakery in the South) became famous. She braved General Butler during the Civil War and readily obtained permission to carry a cargo of flour for bread for her orphans across the lines. The Confederate prisoners were the special object of her solicitude. Seated in the doorway of the bakery in the heart of the city, she became an integral part of its life, for besides the poor who came to her continually she was consulted by the people of all ranks about their business affairs, her wisdom having become proverbial. "Our Margaret" the people of New Orleans called her, and they will tell you that she was masculine in energy and courage but gifted with the gentlest and kindest manners. Her death was announced in the newspapers with blocked columns as a public calamity. All New Orleans, headed by the archbishop, the governor, and the mayor attended her funeral. She was buried in the same grave with Sister Francis Regis Barret, the Sister of Charity who died in 1862 and with whom Margaret had cooperated in all her early work for the poor. At once the idea of erecting a public monument to Margaret in the city arose spontaneously and in two years it was unveiled, 9 July, 1884. The little park in which it is erected is officially named Margaret Place. It has often been stated that this is the first public monument erected to a woman in the United States but the monument on Dustin Island, N.H., to Mrs. Hannah Dustin who, in 1697, killed nine of her sleeping Indian captors and escaped (Harper's Encyclopedia of American History, New York, 1902) antedates it by ten years.(Catholic Encyclopedia, http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/09652d.htm) On 4/15/07, Jean R. <[email protected]> wrote: > SNIPPET: The first-ever monument to a woman in the United States was erected in honor of Cavan-born Margaret Gaffney HAUGHEY, whose likeness graces a street in New Orleans, LA. Margaret, born in Cavan in 1813, left for Baltimore, MD with her parents at age five. They died when Margaret was nine and she was brought up by a Mrs. RICHARDS. Upon her marriage to Charles HAUGHEY, Margaret left for New Orleans in 1835. When her husband and only daughter subsequently died, Margaret devoted herself to helping orphaned children, of which New Orleans had an unusually large share. > > During the years 1845 to 1855 over 50 percent of all immigrants entering New Orleans were Irish. Weakened by starvation many succumbed to typhus and yellow fever. During the first week of May, 1849, New Orleans registered 225 deaths from yellow fever of which 214 were Irish. Many died aboard ship and left children who had no one or no place to go to. These children and others Margaret cared for. > > This selfless woman eventually established a bakery and dairy and spent her profits on the children. Two years following her death in 1884, the people of New Orleans erected a statue in her honor. Hopefully, it has survived the 2005 hurricane and flooding.. > > > ====Irish American Mailing List===== > Add/check your surname to the Irish-American mailing list Surname Registry at: http://www.connorsgenealogy.com/IrishAmerican/ > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to [email protected] with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message > -- Elizabeth W. Tordella, MS, RN

Hi Elizabeth, Fascinating material. Thanks for sharing. What an outstanding lady! I see that there is some discrepancy in the spelling of her husband's surname from the material I have, glad you pointed that out. Jean ----- Original Message ----- From: "Elizabeth Tordella" <[email protected]> To: <[email protected]> Sent: Sunday, April 15, 2007 11:19 AM Subject: Re: [IRISH-AMER] New Orleans Irish -- Cavan-born (1813) Margaret(Gaffney) HAUGHEY's Contribution > Apparently the statue survived Katrina. > > Margaret Gaffney Haughery monument at Margaret Place, Prytania and > Camp streets in Lower Garden District. New Orleans, Louisiana, June > 22, 2006 can be viewed at: > http://www.asergeev.com/pictures/archives/compress/2006/533/10.htm > <snip>