![]() ![]() She sold all her properties as well as valuable items such as oil paintings tapestries, furniture and sculptures.Īccording to Cox, all we know of Mrs Wood's story from there is that she checked into the Herald Square Hotel (presumably with her daughter and sister). According to Cox, Mrs Wood walked out of the bank with about $1 million stuffed into a shopping bag. Then, in 1907, she grew increasingly paranoid about losing her money in the Financial Panic (also known as the Banker's Panic) and hurriedly withdrew all her money from the banks. (She had also helped edit and publish the newspaper). When Mr Wood died in 1900, the New York Times wrote, "Mr Wood possessed no real estate and that his personal property was of small value."Ī year after her husband's death, Mrs Wood sold The Daily News to the publisher of the New York Sun for more than $312,000. He didn't always lose though according to Cox, one night he spread $104,000 dollars across their bed and asked her to count it. She wisely invested her "winnings" into shares and stocks. Her savvy deal with her husband meant that, eventually, all of his property and businesses were signed over to her. ![]() By sending such a forward letter, she had nothing to lose. She also knew that she had no chance of meeting him because she was not in the social circle of the New York's rich and powerful. Broadway PO New York stating what time we may meet.Īccording to Cox, Ida had her heart set on being Mr Wood's new mistress. If you would wish an interview address a letter to No. Perhaps not quite as handsome as the lady with you at present, but I know a little more, and there is an old saying - "Knowledge is power". I believe that I am not extremely bad looking, nor disagreeable. I fancy that as I am new in the city and in "affairs de coeur" that I might contract an agreeable intimacy with you of as long duration as you saw fit to have it. Having heard of you often, I venture to address you from hearing a young lady, one of your "former loves," speak of you. So she penned him an incredibly forward letter (this was not what ladies did in the 19th Century) Her chase began in earnest when she heard on the grapevine that he had multiple affairs. Ms Wood knew that he was rich and powerful, and she was hopeful that her good looks and slender figure would be enough to capture his attention. She had several eager suitors, but there was only one man that caught her eye: Benjamin Wood, 37, publisher of the New York Daily News and the brother of the Mayor of New York, Fernando Wood.Īccording to Joseph Cox, author of The Recluse of Herald Square the fact that Ms Wood was married to his second wife did nothing to deter her from chasing him. When Ida Mayfield, 19, launched herself into the New York social scene in June 1857, she claimed to have grown up in Louisiana. ![]()
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