Jeremiah McAuley

JEREMIAH MCAULEY
1839 - 1884

McAULEY, Jeremiah, missionary, born in Ireland in 1839; died in New York city, 18 September, 1884. At the age of thirteen he was sent to a married sister in New York city, and assisted her husband in his business, but, forming vicious associations, left them soon, and lived in Water street, where he became a thief and a prize-fighter. At the age of nineteen he was arrested for highway robbery, and, although innocent of the charge, was convict ed and sentenced to fifteen years' imprisonment. When he had been about five years in prison he became religious, but after he was pardoned, in March, 1864, he returned to his evil practices. When reduced to poverty, he found a friend in a missionary, who aided him to find work, and reawakened his religious convictions. After repeated relapses, he entered the Methodist church, and in October, 1872, opened a mission called the "Helping Hand" in Water street. He was very successful in arousing religious feelings in the degraded, assisted by his wife, MARIA, who had been his companion in vice. In 1882 they opened the "Cremorne Mission," and in June, 1883, he began the publication of a weekly called "Jerry McAuley's Newspaper." See "Jerry McAuley, his Life and Work," an autobiography, edited by the Reverend Robert M. Offord (New York, 1885).