FORTUNE FOR CHARITY
STRANGE WILL CLAUSE
Everyone in New York was recently manifesting impatience to learn the details of tho will of Miss Ella Wendol, tho world's richest and loneliest woman, who died there on 14th March, at the age of eighty, after a life Of sternest thrift (states an American exchange). There is general agreement that Miss Wendol possessed property worth at least £40,000,000, but many believe that the value of the estate will far exceed that ' figure. Every philanthropic institution in the city is excited, because it is understood that all the fortune will go to charity. Tho history of the Wendel family and its fortune is one of tho world's romances. More than 200 years ago John Gotlieb Wendel started in the real estate business in New York. Ho was an. eccentric man, and one of his queerest fancies was the insertion of a clause in his will that none of liis property should pass out of the family by marriage until the line was extinct. That provision has been faithfully followed, and tho time came when two spinster sisters were the last survivors. Both lived tho lives of recluses, and they spent their time as hermits in the great mansion on Fifth avenue. Ton years ago one sister died, and after that the surviving sister, Miss Ella Wendel, lived a solitary life, her only companion being a white poodle. The majestic front door of the house was nailed up. Electricity was never installed. The house grow mouldy and damp,-and tho once ornate furniture wout to decay. Miss Wendel and her dog ate thoir meals together at the long red velvetcovered banqueting tablo in' the immonso dining-room. Only one visitor was allowed to enter tho house. Ho was tho veterinary surgeon who camo to tho poodle when tho dog had made itself ill by eating too much calf's ]i ver —the oi !y extravagance of tho economical household. One attendant cared for the old woman, and together they watched the one-time famous house fall into vitter ruin. And all the timo fabulous wealth lay waiting at her call.
Permanent link to this item
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/EP19310525.2.131.5
Bibliographic details
Evening Post, Volume CXI, Issue 121, 25 May 1931, Page 13
Word Count
351
FORTUNE FOR CHARITY
Evening Post, Volume CXI, Issue 121, 25 May 1931, Page 13
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