Maria McAuley

Maria McAuley (née Fahy; c. 1841 – September 19, 1919), later Maria Gilbert, was an American missioner who, along with her husband Jerry McAuley, founded the McAuley Water Street Mission (now the New York City Rescue Mission) to shelter the poor of New York City who were primarily immigrants. The couple were Irish Catholics immigrants who became Protestants and missioners after being saved from a lifestyle of drinking and crime by missionaries. McAuley Mission became the first of over 300 rescue missions in the United States; together, these form the Association of Gospel Rescue Missions. Her second husband was noted New York City architect Bradford Gilbert. When she was a young child, she immigrated to the United States with her parents and lived in Massachusetts. She attended school and a Protestant Sunday school.

Fahy moved to New York City and became a waitress and entertainer in the Fourth Ward, a notorious area of Manhattan. She admitted to being "a drunkard in a Cherry Street hovel, with only straw for a bed." Another time, she stated, "There was never a more degraded sinner than I was, to my shame it be said. My home was a drunkard's hovel, and the principal thing there was the rum bottle." thumb leftAround 1864, Fahey met and became romantically involved with the 25-year-old Jerry McAuley. McAuley a self-proclaimed drunkard, and "river thief" who had just served seven years in Sing Sing prison; he received early parole from the fifteen-year sentence he received when he was nineteen years old.

In 1868, Water Street missionaries converted the Catholic McAuley to Protestantism; he had previously expressed an interest in a missionary's teachings while in prison. Apparently her relocation to New Jersey was, in part, an effort of the missionaries to separate Fahey from McAuley, after learning that the cohabitating couple was not married. During her absence from McAuley, she kept in touch by writing letters. Their marriage took place at the Howard Mission and Home for Little Wanderers, previously the Fourth Ward Mission, and was attended by a small group of friends. According to a promotional booklet for the mission, its audience included homeless men and women, landsmen, sailors, strangers, the friendless, and anyone interested in Christian service.

After her husband died in 1884, she carried on their work, serving as matron or superintendent of the Cremorne Mission. Perhaps due to managing the mission for eight years, her health began to fail and it was believed she would die in 1892. Gilbert was a long time supporter of Jerry McAuley's work and was a former trustee of the Cremorne Mission. The two had courted for five years, and Gilbert married her after her health declined so that he could care for her. At the same time, she served Maria with a $50,000 ($ in today's money) lawsuit for alienation of affections, with allegations that "were numerous and specific." Standing by Gilbert and McAuley were banker A. S Hatch, real estate agent Sidney Whittemore, Franklin W. Coe, and other ladies and gentlemen associated with McAuley Mission. In a few years, Gilbert obtained a divorce, and Cora Gilbert withdrew her lawsuit against McAuley.

After their marriage, Maria and Bradford Gilbert lived at 225 Park Place in New York City and had a summer home in Accord, New York.