#52 Ancestors 2020 Week 25 Unexpected: Augustus McCafferty, the Irishman from Cuba

When you see an ancestor with a solid Irish name like McCafferty, you would not be surprised to see that he was born in Brooklyn NY.  But you might be surprised to see his birthplace listed as Cuba.  I certainly was.

Augustus Hugh McCafferty was the husband of my cousin, Mary Elizabeth "Lalla" Somervell.  They were married at the Church of the Ascension in Washington DC on the 18th of July 1871.  When I started to work on filling in his background, I found him in the 1870 Census, a clerk at the War Department,  boarding at the Somervell home in DC.  (Now I know how he met his wife.)  But oddly, his birthplace was listed as Cuba.  I thought this might be an error, but I was intrigued to find out more.

But then, I found him as a two-year-old, along with his mother on a passenger list from 1844, arriving in New York from Neuvitas, Cuba.  What was he doing in Cuba? I found 39-year-old Hugh McCafferty on another ship from Nuevitas to New York; his occupation was listed as miner.  So, it turns out that there was quite a lot of copper mining in Cuba in the 19th century; one of the most famous and the oldest copper mine in the New World was the Cobre Mine, located near the Santiago Bay in southwest Cuba.  In the 19th century, a British company ran the mine and recruited heavily to entice miners to Cuba.  The pay was good, but the hot, humid country was also subject to typhoid, malaria, and yellow fever.

So Hugh McCafferty was among those that went to Cuba as a miner. Apparently, his wife, Agnes Bridget "Biddy" Farmer went with him.  Their daughter, Mary Farmer McCafferty was born in Savannah GA in 1838.  Their son Augustus Hugh McCafferty was born in Santiago Cuba in 1842.  Their daughter Julia West McCafferty was born in Nuevitas Cuba in 1847.


Hugh McCafferty was the son of two Irish immigrants: Bernard McCafferty and Mary Haverna.  Biddy Farmer was also the daughter of Irish immigrants: Peter Farmer and Mary Cassidy.

By 1855, the McCafferty's were back in Brooklyn, but they apparently travelled back and forth to Cuba a number of times.  Their daughter Julia was married in Holguin Cuba in 1866 to a native of Barcelona, Restituto Blancafort.  Biddy's 1873 passport application identifies her husband Hugh as a scout for the United States (not sure what he was scouting, perhaps mining opportunities.)

Eighteen-year-old Augustus is shown in 1861 returning from Cuba to New York on the schooner Anna Gardner, his occupation listed as surveyor. Upon his return, he promptly enlisted in the Union Army, the 84th New York Infantry and put his surveying skills to good use.  His military record describes him as 5'8" tall with a fair complexion, brown hair and blue eyes. He took part in the Battle of Bull Run in Virginia, but then was separated from his regiment to serve in a special topographical unit.  In his later pension application, Augustus says that he was "constantly engaged upon works of reconnaissance and surveys. . . penetrating beyond our picket lines into the Enemy country and gaining all manner of information for the use of the Army and for incorporating into the military maps then being prepared."

 Union Scouts (Thomas Nast)

This service, involving as Augustus described, "daily exposure and hardship and the uncertainty of proper food when absent from our camp" led to a long-term disability and ultimately an invalid's pension.  Augustus was moved out of the field to the Engineer Department in Washington DC where he still worked on preparing maps.  He was mustered out of the Army 23 May 1864 in Washington DC and continued to live there, boarding with Sarah Scrivener Somervell and her family, as noted above and subsequently marrying Sarah's daughter, Lalla.

Prince's Bay Lighthouse, Staten Island 1885

Augustus and Lalla moved to Tompkinsville on Staten Island NY where he worked for the Lighthouse Department. He was a deacon at the local Presbyterian Church. The McCafferty's had three sons: Woodruff Marbury McCafferty 1872, Henry Leaver McCafferty 1875 and Somervell Bruce McCafferty 1888.

Lalla Somervell McCafferty died on Staten Island in 1890.  In 1893, Augustus's mother and sister petitioned to have him declared incompetent, and he was hospitalized at the Long Island State Hospital where he died in 1896 at the age of 54.  He was buried next to his wife and his son Henry (d. 1888) at the Moravian Cemetery in New Dorp, Staten Island. His minor son Bruce was put in the care of his sister and brother-in-law Mary McCafferty Atwater and Henry Harrison Atwater.