February 16, 1840 - Margaret Haughery Opens the first of Four Orphanages

The first statue erected in the United States in honor of a woman is the statue to Margaret Haughery at the corner of Prytania and Camp in New Orleans. It is fondly called "The Margaret Statue".

Haughery immigrated from Ireland in 1835 and soon lost her husband and child in the yellow fever epidemic. She opened her first orphanage in a previously dilapidated house in the 1400 block of Clio Street which was said to be haunted. When the owner planned to sell the property, Margaret convinced him of the value of charity and the orphanage was granted free rent from that day on. She then purchased several cows to provide milk for the children. This purchase developed into a booming dairy whose products she sold through the city from her milk cart. Haughery's investments and loans were highly profitable and her wealth grew. As a result of earlier loans to businessmen, she found herself the major stockholder of a bankrupt bakery, which she transformed into a highly successful venture known as Margaret's Bakery (later the Klotz Cracker Factory).

She tended to the victims of the many yellow fever epidemics in the city without consideration of race, religion or class and her generosity was well-known throughout the city. After the epidemic of 1853 she was approached with the need for an orphanage for just infants. Her answer was, "Build the asylum, and God will pay for it" and it was thus that St. Vincent De Paul Infant Asylum at Race and Magazine Streets was started. The debt was paid in sixteen years, largely through Haughery's milk cart sales.

Margaret also established St. Theresa's, St. Elizabeth's and the Poydras Asylum, several homes for the elderly, and at her death in 1882 she willed the bulk of her estate (over $600,000) to New Orleans' orphanages. The crowd at her funeral stretched for a block outside the church doors and her pallbearers included former governors and mayors. All stores, city offices and business establishments were closed for the day in respect.

Source: http://landrieu.senate.gov/newsite/whmhaughery.cfm