The first twenty-five years in the life of the businesswoman and philanthropist Margaret Haughery were marked by tremendous personal suffering. Born into poverty in Ireland in 1813, Haughery immigrated with her parents and two of her five siblings to Baltimore at the age of five. By age nine, she was an orphan. At age twenty-one, she married, moved to New Orleans, and had a child. Both her husband and child died within the next two years.

Haughery stayed in New Orleans and worked as a laundress, donating her extra wages to the Sisters of Charity, who ran the Poydras Orphan Asylum. Eventually she began working for the Sisters of Charity and saved enough money to buy two cows to start a dairy. As the small dairy expanded and Haughery became increasingly successful, she acquired a bakery and, with her newfound wealth, helped finance the construction of orphanages such as St. Elizabeth’s Asylum, St. Teresa’s Asylum, and St. Vincent’s Asylum.

Haughery supported the orphanages for the rest of her life, and when she died, in 1882, she left her entire fortune to charity. Haughery’s incredible legacy is commemorated by a statue at the intersection of Camp and Prytania Streets, dedicated in 1884. The monument is one of the earliest statues honoring a woman to be placed on public land in the United States.