Life Story: Margaret Gaffney Haughery (1813-1882)

Margaret Gaffney Haughery was born in County Leitrim, Ireland, in the year 1813. She was fifth of the six children of William and Margaret Gaffney. William owned a small farm, but shortly after Margaret’s birth, he ran into hard times. Two years of bad weather left William and thousands of other Irish farmers unable to support their families. In 1818, William and his wife, Margaret, made the difficult decision to immigrate to the U.S., where they hoped to be able to build a better life. They did not have enough money to bring all their children, so young Margaret’s three older siblings were left behind until their parents could raise enough money for their trip across the Atlantic Ocean. Margaret never saw them again.

Margaret was only five years old when she arrived in Baltimore, Maryland. Unfortunately, her challenges were just beginning. Her parents struggled to make enough money to feed their family. In 1822, a yellow fever epidemic killed her parents and sister. There is no record of what happened to her brother. At nine years old, Margaret was an orphan in a country of strangers. A neighbor took in Margaret but expected her to work to earn her keep. This early training prepared Margaret to enter the workforce as a domestic servant. Margaret worked in homes around Baltimore until 1835, when she married Charles Haughery.

Within a month of their wedding, Charles and Margaret joined the steady stream of people seeking their fortunes in the American West. They settled in New Orleans, where Margaret gave birth to a daughter they named Frances. Not long after Frances was born, Charles grew ill. He traveled back to Ireland to try to regain his health but died shortly after his arrival. Just a few months after Margaret received news of her husband’s death, Frances died too. Once again, Margaret was alone in an unfamiliar place mourning the loss of her family.

The 1830s were not an easy time to be an Irish widow in America. Irish immigrants were not popular with most Americans, who believed that they were dirty, uneducated, and stealing the jobs of people born in the U.S. The Irish also followed the teachings of the Catholic Church, which earned them the anger and distrust of Protestant Americans. On top of being Irish, Margaret did not have a husband or father, which left her without much legal or economic protection under U.S. law.

Margaret found support from the Sisters of Charity, a community of Catholic nuns. They gave Margaret a place to live and helped her find a job as a laundress in the St. Charles Hotel. In her free time, Margaret helped with the orphans left in the Sisters’ care. Margaret had more reason than most to care about orphans. She was an orphan herself and was still grieving the loss of her only child. She donated as much as two-thirds of her salary to support the children. She also used her small savings to buy two cows so she could give them fresh milk. 

Margaret sold any milk the orphans did not need, and soon she was able to purchase more cows. She also bought a cart, which she used to peddle her milk, cheese, and butter all over town. Before long, Margaret’s dairy was a huge success, and she was a familiar figure to people from all over New Orleans. But Margaret still spent all of her free time and money supporting the orphans of New Orleans. She used her profits to build a better orphanage for the Sisters of Charity and helped establish St. Teresa’s Orphan Asylum in another part of town.

Margaret had never been taught to read or write, but she became a savvy entrepreneur. With the profits from the dairy, she bought a failing bakery and transformed it into Margaret Haughery & Company, which was one of the first steam-powered bakeries in the South. The bakery was also a great success. Margaret drove a bread cart around the city, selling her wares. But her bakery was successful enough to export goods for a large profit. Margaret did not allow her success to change her. Every evening, Margaret would distribute any unsold products to the city’s poor. Whenever there was an outbreak of yellow fever, Margaret worked as a nurse wherever she was needed. And, of course, she never stopped supporting the city’s orphans. She continued to make large donations to orphanages, and she sold her bread to all the city’s orphanages at such a low price that it was practically free.

During the Civil War, the people of New Orleans suffered terrible food shortages, but Margaret did all she could to help. She distributed wagons of free bread to the city’s poor every day. When the Union Army tried to stop her from crossing lines during their occupation of the city, Margaret simply defied them until they gave her permission to move about as she liked.

By the end of the Civil War, Margaret’s reputation as a local hero was secure, and her role as a pillar of her community only grew in the years that followed. Margaret still traveled through New Orleans daily, selling bread and checking in with her community. Business and community leaders would visit her at her bakery to ask for advice. The war and the continuing crisis of yellow fever brought the number of orphans in New Orleans to an all-time high, so Margaret built seven more orphanages. She was explicit in all her donations that the institutions should serve all children in need regardless of their race, religion, ethnicity, or social class. News of her great works spread far, reaching even the Pope in Rome. She was called “Bread Woman,” “Friend of the Orphans,” “Mother of the Orphans,” “Our Margaret,” and “Angel of the Delta.” 

Margaret became seriously ill in 1882. During the last months of her life, the city made every effort to show her how appreciated she was. She even received a crucifix and blessing from the Pope to comfort her in her final days. Her passing was announced as front-page news in the main New Orleans newspaper and was met with an unprecedented outpouring of grief. She was given a state funeral. The mayor of New Orleans led her funeral procession, the Archbishop presided over her mass, and two lieutenant governors helped carry her casket. The cathedral was so crowded that they struggled to carry the casket down the center aisle.

Plans were immediately made to erect a statue of Margaret so that the memory of her contributions to the city would not be forgotten. When the statue was unveiled in 1884, it was only the second statue in the U.S. that honored a woman. Margaret left her entire fortune to the orphanages of New Orleans, and she is still revered in the city today. 

• Archbishop: A leader in the Catholic Church in charge of a territory of land. 
• cathedral: The main church of a territory. 
• Catholic: A Christian who follows the leadership of the Pope in Rome. 
• Civil War: U.S. war from 1861-1865 in which the Northern and Southern states fought over the question of whether the practice of slavery should continue in the U.S.  
• crucifix: A holy symbol of Catholics. 
• nun: A woman who commits her life to living with a Catholic community of women.  
• Pope: The leader of the Catholic Church.
• Protestant: Umbrella term for all Christians who do not follow the Pope.
• Union Army: The army that fought for the states that remained a part of the United State during the Civil War. 
• yellow fever: A tropical disease that attacks the liver and kidneys.