MISER'S £200,000

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 23181, 29 October 1938, Page 2 (Supplement)

MISER'S £200,000

British Families Old American

SEARCH now being made by an American lawyer among musty files in Somerset House and the British Museum, London, may bring unsuspected wealth to families in Leeds. Hull and Dublin. Mr. Joseph Cox has arrived in England from New York on the last lap of a six years' search for the heirs to the £200,000 fortune left by ninety-three-years-old Mrs. Ida Wood, once a belle of Manhattan society who became an eccentric recluse.

k FTER she died in a dingy hotel f\ room in the Bronx, a hoard of -*■ diamonds, securities and cash was discovered there. Ten thousand dollar bills were found pinned inside her rusty black skirt, and when the mattress was ripped open a cascade of diamonds and other precious stones, including one beautiful £15,000 diamond necklace, poured out on to' the carpet. That necklace and the rings, bracelets and tiaras hidden with it, had adorned Mrs. Ida Wood 70 years before, when she was a famous New York beauty. Tucked aw&J with her treasures, too, were faded dance programmes saved from the gay nights when she was the lovely toast of America and Europe, when she danced with King Edward VII., then Prince of Wales, and was presented at the Court of Napoleon 11. After Husband's Death Born in England and of Irish parentage,. Airs. Wood emigrated to America as a young girl and eventually married wealthy Benjamin Wood, owner of the New York Daily News. Soon after his death in 1900 she disappeared from Fifth Avenue, abandoned the life of luxury which she had been leading, and became a miserly hermit.

As the .years went by New York foiJ got''lda Wood. People who saw the queer old lady shuffling through the mean streets of the Bronx after darkt never associated her with the former beauty and leader of smart society. She lived in utter poverty, cooking' meagre meals over a gas jet in her bedsitting room, half starving herself be.' cause she bated to spend a penny morr of her precious money than was neces*! sary. No one suspected her wealth until one day notes worth nearly £IOO.OOO dropped from her bodice as she stooped, to fasten a shoelace. Many Claimants , Then moves were made to place her and her fortune under proper control/ but Mrs. Wood vigorously resisted all efforts to interfere with her private life. Since her death lawyers have been wrestling with the problem of dividing the estate. More than 1000 claimants originally rushed to the courts declaring that they were entitled to a share, but most of these have since been eliminated, and Mr. Cox, acting for the New York Public Administrator, has now trav. el led to England to follow up new clues found among Mrs. Wood's private docu. ments. ... From records she kept it is thought that direct heirs to her £200,000 fortune may still be living in Hull, Leeds and Dublin.