In approximately 1725 a man named Alexander Vaughey came from the city of Omah in county Tyrone to the town of Slane in County Meath, Ireland.  He came to work for the Conyngham family who owned a large estate around and including the town of Slane. His job was what would be called a forest ranger or forest manager today. He was responsible for planting and maintaining the forests on the Conyngham estate.

            The village of Slane today with the Boyne river in the foreground. The Vaughey Family lived
               on the top of the hill just out of site in the top right of the picture.
                The Vaugheys lived in what had been a hunting lodge on the top of the Hill of Slane. The building still stands and is now part of the property of one of Alex’s descendants, Pearl Baxter. The Hill of Slane itself is one of the most historic sites in Ireland. It was here that St. Patrick lit his Pascal fire in defiance of the High King of Ireland on the nearby Hill of Tara. The property contains the ruins of a church and a monastery. The old Vaughey house is now used as a storehouse for the dairy farm owned and run by the Baxter family.

                             Original Vaughey home on Hill of Slane, Slane, Co. Meath, Ireland

Slane in the 1800’s. On the left is the road from Dublin, approx. 20 miles to the south. On the right is the road leading to the Vaughey house on the ‘Hill of Slane’ just outside of town.
          

            The family continued to live in Slane and in approx. 1840 James Vaughey married Margaret Conlon and they left for America. I have no idea what brought them to Verplanck, New York, but it was probably the fact that the brick-making trade was heating up at that time and labor was needed. James and Margaret had eight children, one of whom was Bridget who was born in Verplanck on Sept. 3, 1847 and was my great-grandmother. The other children were Bernard, John, Margaret, Christopher, Jane, James and Thomas.

            The family prospered in the following years. I don’t know much about their lives in those years except that they seemed to be involved in many business enterprises. The elder James owned a store in Verplanck on the north side of Broadway between Sixth and Seventh streets presently occupied by Angela’s Deli. One sign of their standing in the community is the fact that James and Margaret’s gravestone is the largest in the old St. Patrick’s cemetery. They lived on the right side of Sixth St. just north of the Broadway intersection. The building is still owned by a member of the Vaughey family, Bernie Vaughey, the great-grandson of Thomas Vaughey and Rose McGuire.

The following are pictures of some of the children of James and Margaret:

    Margaret (Vaughey ) Martin                                                      Bridget (Vaughey) Kelly

                John Vaughey                                                                James Vaughey

          I don’t know what business all of the children were in but I know a few. Thomas and Christopher ran a store on Sixth St. in Verplanck in what is today the fourth building on the east side of Sixth St. between Broadway and Westchester Ave. (161 6^th. St). The following is a picture of that store. It’s not a good picture but will give you an idea of what the store was like.

                               
            As a child my father worked in this store. He had to hitch up the wagon in the morning, get supplies from somewhere and stock the shelves. He would then go to class at St. Patrick’s school. My mother said she could always tell if my father was around because she could smell the pickle juice on his hands from filling up the pickle barrel.                                                          

            Another brother, John had an office at the Steamboat Dock. He handled freight being shipped and delivered by riverboats. I have receipts for furniture delivered to the dock for my grandmother, Anna Kelly, when she was getting married in 1900.

            In addition to his store, Thomas was involved in the brickmaking industry. Other brothers may have been also. I have checks made out to Tom from the First National Bank of Sing Sing from the firm of “O’Brien, McConnon & Vaughey” who I believe were brickmakers. There are five checks totaling 1275 dollars, the smallest being 150 dollars. This might not seem like much money today but the fact is that the average worker at that time was making about one dollar a day!

            Margaret Vaughey married a man from Peekskill named James Martin who had a prosperous cigar making business. My mother said they were one of the first families in the area to have an automobile.

            James Vaughey had a furniture store and a funeral parlor in Peekskill, which went by the name of J.J. Vaughey & Co.

At the present time there is only one Vaughey in the Verplanck area. He is Bernie Vaughey and is the great-grandson of Thomas Vaughey and Rose McGuire.