WORLD'S RICHEST WOMAN.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20868, 9 May 1931, Page 3 (Supplement)

WORLD'S RICHEST WOMAN.

FORTUNE OF £40.000,000

LIFE OF STERNEST THRIFT. Everyone in New York was recently manifesting impatience to learn the details of the will of Miss Ella Wendel, the world's richest and loneliest woman, who died thpro on March ]4, at the age of eighty, after a life of sternest thrift. There is general agreement that Miss Wendel possessed property worth at. least £40.000,000, but many believe that the value of the estate will far exceed that figui'p. Every philanthropic institution in the city is excited, because it. is understood that, all the fortune will go to charitv.

The history of (lie Wendel family and its fortune is one of the world's romances. More than 200 years ago John Gottlieb Wendel started in the real estate business in New York. lie was an eccentric man, and one of his queerest fancies was the insertion of a clause in Ins will that none of his property should pass out. of the family by marriage until'the line, was extinct.

That, provision lias been faithfully folfowed, and the time came when two spinster sisters were the last, survivors. Both lived their lives of recluses, and they spent, their time as hermits in the great mansion on Fifth Avenue, ten 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 tlie house was nailed up. Electricity was never installed. The house grew mouldy and damp, and the once ornate furniture went to decav.

Miss Wcndel and her dog ale their meals together at the long red velvetcovered banqueting table in the immense dining-room.

Only one visitor was allowed to enter the house. He was the veterinary surgeon who came to the poodle when the dog had made itself ill by eating too much calf's liver—the only extravagance of the economical household. One attendant cared for the old woman, and together they watched the one-time famous house fall into utter ruin. And all (he time fabulous wealth lay waiting at her call.