McAuley, Jeremiah (c. 1839 - Sept. 18, 1884), reformed criminal, "apostle to the lost", was born in Ireland. His father was a counterfeiter who found it expedient to leave for parts unknown while Jerry, as he was always called, was an infant. He was brought up by a Roman Catholic grandmother whose head he frequently made a target for missiles as she knelt in prayer, for which impudence, upon arising, she was accustomed to curse him vigorously. He never went to school, was harshly treated, and grew up in idleness and mischief. When thirteen years of age he was sent to New York, where he made his home with a married sister until, confident that he could live by his own wits, he took lodgings on Water Street. Here, in association with other criminals he became a river thief, boarding vessels at night and stealing whatever he could take away. At nineteen he was arrested for highway robbery, and, though innocent of the charge, was convicted and sentenced to Sing Sing for a term of fifteen years and six months. A Sunday morning talk given by a reformed criminal, Orville Gardner, better known as "Awful" Gardner, started him on the road to conversion. In 1864, having served more than seven years of his sentence, he was pardoned, and left prison determined to lead a sober and righteous life; but temptation was too strong for him and he reverted to evil ways. With others he began buying stolen goods of sailors; then, compelling them to join the army through fear of arrest, collected the bounty. After the war he was engaged in river thieving and in disposing of stolen and smuggled goods. It was profitable business, but he spent all his gains in riotous living. His conscience was never quiet, however, and through the influence of Water Street mission workers he was again, and this time permanently, converted.

Having secured honest employment, he was one day sitting at his work when, he says, "I had a trance or vision . . . and it seemed as if I was working for the Lord down in the Fourth Ward. I had a house and people were coming in. There was a bath, and as they came in I washed and cleansed them outside, and the Lord cleansed them inside." He interested others in the realization of his dream, a little money was raised, and on Oct. 8, 1872, he opened a mission at 316 Water Street. For nearly ten years, often persecuted by the vicious and not always supported by the police, he ministered to the fallen. His wife, Maria, who also had been rescued from a life of degradation, was his devoted colaborer. Scores were converted, and knowledge of the mission was carried by sailors and others to distant quarters of the world. It was incorporated as the McAuley Water Street Mission in 1876, and a three-story brick building erected for its work. In 1882 McAuley founded the Cremorne Mission on West Thirty-second street, which he conducted until his death. He also began in June 1883 the publication of a journal, Jerry McAuley's Newspaper, which contained accounts of mission meetings and testimonies of converts. An autobiographical sketch dictated by him, entitled Transformed, or the History of a River Thief, appeared in 1876, and was widely circulated. During his later years he suffered from consumption, which was the cause of his comparatively early death. He was buried in Woodlawn Cemetery.