Margaret Gaffney was given the name of the “Orphans’ Friend.”
She was an orphan left to the care of Welsh people who were
very poor. Charity was the very spring of her being. Having
lost her husband, her childless heart caused her to enter the
Paydros Orphan Asylum, for which she solicited stores, wheeling
them herself in a wheelbarrow when she had no other means of
conveyance. She built another orphan asylum, and started a dairy
to help its support. Later she established a bakery. She would
not indulge herself in anything unnecessary because there “was
so much suffering in the world.” New Orleans owes to this poor,
ignorant woman her three largest homes for children, which are
for orphans, black or white, irrespective of denomination.
When the Fourth Louisiana Regiment was taken captive to New
Orleans, Margaret went to the fort with a load of bread, and
when ordered to halt, she replied, “What for?” When challenged,
she jumped out of the wagon, grabbed the sentinel in her arms,
and forcibly set him out of her path, and amid the cheers of the
men, entered the fort with her baskets of bread. Whenever the
Mississippi overflowed, her boat, loaded with bread, went daily
to the submerged districts, feeding the needy. This poor woman
was followed to her grave by the entire municipal government,
merchants, professional men, and the children of eleven orphan
asylums, who uncovered their heads to Margaret, the first woman
in this country to be honored by the erection of a marble statue
to her memory.--JAMES T. WHITE, “Character Lessons.”
(1156)