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Summer 2008 |
THE BREAD WOMAN
Beloved Margaret Haughery
let a saintly light shine through
By Arthur Smith |
Plain-faced and plump, wearing thick-soled shoes and a simple shawl, there's nothing outwardly heroic about the seated marble figure of a woman. The inscription, too, offers no clues why this woman is remembered with a monument in the center of a small triangular park in New Orleans. It just gives her name: Margaret.
Her full name was Margaret Gaffney Haughery. In life, she was sometimes known as “The Bread Woman.” And when she died, many said she was a saint.
An Irish immigrant, Margaret came to New Orleans in 1830 with her husband and baby daughter. Both died soon after their arrival, leaving Margaret alone and penniless at age 22. She found work as a laundress at the Poydras Orphan Asylum, beginning her lifelong devotion to motherless children.
Margaret saved enough money from her laundress wages to buy two milk cows and a little cart. Every morning she would make her rounds delivering milk, returning to the orphan asylum with left-over food begged from hotels and wealthy households on her route.
Although she never learned to read or write, Margaret had a sharp mind for business. |
 PLACE OF HONOR: Unveiled in 1884 two years after her death, the statue of Margaret Haughery in New Orleans honors her lifetime of giving and service to the city's orphans. |
The dairy business thrived and after several years Margaret saw the opportunity to buy a bankrupt small bakery, which she turned around into the city's largest. It was known simply as “Margaret's Bakery.”
Margaret had become quite wealthy, and her generosity grew apace. With profits from the bakery, she supported seven orphanages serving all races and faiths in the city and helped to found at least three Roman Catholic institutions – St. Theresa's Asylum (1840), St. Vincent's Asylum (1853) and St. Elizabeth's Asylum (1856).
It is estimated that Margaret gave away more than $600,000 to charity during her lifetime, spending little on herself. She was reputed to own just two dresses – one for everyday and a plain silk dress for special occasions. She always wore a Quaker-style bonnet, which became her trademark, as much the milk delivery cart that she continued to drive around the city.
After a long illness, Margaret died in 1882 at age 69. Her body was taken to St Vincent's Asylum on Magazine Street to lie in state. Newspapers ran with black edging to mark her passing. Among the pall bearers at her funeral were Louisiana Governor Samuel Douglas McEnery and New Orleans Mayor William Behan, followed by a throng of orphans, nuns, priests, business leaders, and admirers. When the cortège passed the old New Orleans Stock Exchange, members suspended trading and poured on to the street. She was buried in St. Louis Cemetery No. 2.
A few days later, Margaret's will – leaving all her remaining fortune of $30,000 to charity– was filed for probate. It was signed with an “X.”
A grateful city commissioned prominent New York sculptor Alexander Doyle (1857-1922) to create the marble statue of Margaret, which is believed to be the second-oldest public monument to a woman in the United States. It was unveiled in July 1884.
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 CALLING THE ROLL: Unknown Confederate solider
by Alexander Doyle located in Metairie Cemetery. |
Doyle's depiction of the gentle philanthropist is almost a curiosity compared with his trio of important sculptures of Confederate Army generals around New Orleans. These are the iconic figure of Robert E. Lee at Lee Circle, dedicated in February 1884; the bronze statue of Albert Sydney Johnston atop the Army of the Tennessee cenotaph in Metairie Cemetery (1887), and the massive bronze equestrian of P.T. Beauregard at the entrance to City Park (1915). Some say Doyle's finest work is “Calling the Roll” (1885), a marble of an unknown Confederate soldier also in Metairie Cemetery. |
Meanwhile, several of the sturdy brick “asylums” that Margaret helped build and sustain are still standing. A few have been converted to boutique hotels and luxury condominiums.
The statue itself has borne the ravages of time. Margaret is missing a finger and the cherubic orphan at her side has lost a nose. And overall, the marble is deteriorating from the effects of air pollution and acid rain.
Perhaps the most ephemeral tributes to Margaret will be the most lasting such as the words of Archbishop Napoleon Joseph Perché in his eulogy:“I have already been asked whether Margaret Haughery, who lived and laboured so long and well amongst us, was a saint. It is not for me to make a pronouncem ent. But, if you put this same question to yourselves, dear brethren, you may find an answer similar to that which a little boy once made when a sister in our Sunday school enquired that somebody define a Saint. ‘I think,' said the child remembering the human figures in stained glass windows, ‘that a saint is one who lets the light shine through.'” |
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843 Carondelet Street, Suite 4 | New Orleans, LA 70130 | Office: 504.322.2281 | Fax: 504.322.2282 |
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