Mcauley, Jerry

McAuley, "Jerry," an evangelist, was born in Ireland in 1839. His father came to this country to escape arrest. Jerry never received any schooling, and when nineteen years old was committed to Sing Sing state-prison for fifteen years on the charge of robbery. While there he was religiously impressed, but, after his pardon in 1864, he returned to his old pursuits. In 1872 he found friends who stood by him, and in October of that year he opened his "Helping Hand for Men " on Water Street, New York city, which resulted in the conversion of many. In 1876 the old building was replaced by a new one, called "The McAuley Water Street Mission." In 1882, feeling that his work was done in that quarter of the city, he began a new mission in West Thirty-second Street, called the "Cremorne Mission." In June 1883, he began the publication of Jerry McAuley's Newspaper, which is still published every other week. He died September 18, 1884. See Jerry McAuley: His Life and Work, by R.M. Offord (N.Y. 1885),