Misc. data, stories - Vaughey Family
When I started this family history one of the first things I did was to visit the old cemetery beside St. Patrick’s church in Verplanck. The only monument there with connections to my family was the Vaughey stone. However, on the stone was enough information to get me started towards my goal of finding family origins in Europe. There on the stone was an inscription which read in part “FROM THE PARISH OF SLANE, CO. MEATH, IRELAND”. This proved to be the only branch of the family which was so easily traced.
In 1979 I had an opportunity to travel to Europe through my job at IBM. When my business was completed I made a three-day stopover in Ireland to get the lay of the land for future ancestor hunting trips. I rented a car in Dublin and went straight to Slane, which is about twenty miles north of the city. Not knowing exactly what I was looking for, I headed for the local Catholic Church (St. Patrick’s of course) and talked to the priest. I told him my story and much to my surprise he said there was a Vaughey in town and directed me to her home. With some trepidation (which I found I needn’t have had), I approached the house and to the man who answered, I announced who I was and what I was looking for. He led me into the house and I met his wife Pearl. Her name was now Baxter but her maiden name was Vaughey. I didn’t think there was a chance she was a relative but she surprised my by announcing that not only was she a relative, but she had been to Verplanck some years before and had visited the same Vaughey grave! It turns out that another Vaughey had visited from America some years before. He was from Mississippi and invited her to visit him in the States. She had taken him up on the offer and knowing of other relatives had stopped by in Verplanck. So it turns out that there are Vaugheys in Mississippi, New York, Chicago and on my latest trip to Ireland I learned from Pearl that there are also relatives in North Dakota.
Pearl told me about the original Vaughey, Alex, and how the family had stayed on in Slane and eventually bought the property where they lived on the “Hill of Slane” and now had a dairy farm there. There is little of the woods remaining that Alex had planted and worked in, but on the map of the local area there is a place designated “Vaughey’s Woods”. The hill itself is one of the most important historical sites in Ireland but I won’t bore anyone with that story here.
Over the years I’ve visited with Pearl many times. The house pictured in the first section is now used as a storehouse but was lived in by the family until the 1950’s. I brought my mother to Ireland on her 80th birthday in 1984 and one of the most memorable times we had there was when we celebrated that birthday with Pearl and her family. The picture following is of my mother and Pearl taken outside the front of her house with the ruins of the ancient church and Abby in the background.
Pearl is now 82 years old. Her husband Peter died in 1990. Her children live nearby. She is in good health and still takes part in the affairs of the town especially those concerned with the local history.
Margaret Murray and Pearl Baxter on the Hill of Slane, Slane, Co. Meath, Ireland - 1984
Pearl, Colm Yure, Rosemary (daughter), Peter Baxter
Ciaran Baxter (Pearl’s son)
Ruins on the “Hill of Slane” with “Vaughey’s Woods” in the background and the Vaughey
farm buildings and home in the right background
PICTURES, LETTERS, ETC.
I don’t have many pictures of the Vaughey family other than what I’ve already included in the previous sections. I’ll show the couple I have and also the checks and receipts I mentioned in the text.
Margaret (Vaughey) Clancy Bernie Vaughey (son of Tom & Rose Vaughey)
Checks written to Tom Vaughey from O’Brien, McConnon & Vaughey
Receipts for furniture shipped to the Steamboat Dock in Verplanck via the steamers CHRYSTENAH and EMELINE and signed by John Vaughey.
Bridget Kelly’s receipt for money received from the estate of someone in the Vaughey family - 1882
Settlement of the estate of Christopher Vaughey
The following is a letter written by James Vaughey to his aunt and uncle, Bridget and John Kelly, from school in Poughkeepsie in 1893: