Fuck Yeah Hoarders

Fuck Yeah Hoarders

Famous hoarders, via Squalor Survivors:
Ida Mayfield Wood
Mrs. Ida Mayfield Wood lived in seclusion and squalor in the Herald Square Hotel in New York City, from 1907 to 1931. An exceedingly rich woman and former member of New York high society, she had over $750,000 (remember, this was 1931) stashed in odd places such as pots and pans and in a pouch secured to her waist, as well as shoeboxes filled with yellowed securities worth thousands of dollars and, legend has it, a diamond necklace in a cracker box,
She was born Ellen Walsh, the daughter of immigrant factory workers in Massachusetts. In 1839, Ellen left home in the late 1850’s and was never heard from by her parents again. She resurfaced in New York under a new name, Ida Mayfield, passing herself off as a southern belle from a wealthy family. She quickly gathered a number of suitors, and eventually married Benjamin Wood, the congressman brother of Mayor Fernando Wood and publisher of the New York Daily News, the highest-circulating daily newspaper in the US.
It must be said that Benjamin was not the ideal husband, having affairs and even fathering a daughter, Emma, by another woman, who he and Ida raised as their own. To atone for his philandering he regularly gave Ida large sums of money. Shrewd woman that she was, she invested in stocks and when in 1899 Benjamin came to her to save him from some bad investments, she was in a position to give him $100,000. In return, she took control of the newspaper, making her one of the first women to serve as publisher of a major metropolitan newspaper.
Benjamin died in 1900, and in 1907 Ida, increasingly reclusive and paranoid, moved into the Herald Square Hotel with Emma, her sister Mary, and one million dollars in cash. The three women lived there in frugal squalor, cooking thrir own meals and rarely venturing outside. Sometime in the late 1920’s, Emma and Mary died, leaving Ida alone as she approached her 90’s, frail (weighing just 70 pounds) and nearly blind and deaf.
In 1931, Ida’s nephew, Otis F. Wood started legal proceedings to have himself declared her guardian, partly on account of her dreadful living conditions. Otis used some of Ida’s money to clean up her home and provide medical care.Ida dies 5 months after her “discovery” in 1932, aged 1932. Because her fortune had been publicized by the Boston Globe, news of her death brought hundreds of Mayfields claiming to be direct descendants out of the woodwork. The court hired a law firm to determine Ida’s true descendants and settle the estate.
The result was the court finding finding that “Ida Mayfield” was the false identity assumed by Ellen Walsh. Ten direct descendants of Ellen Walsh received $90,00 each, a fortune in the late 1930’s.

Famous hoarders, via Squalor Survivors:

Ida Mayfield Wood

Mrs. Ida Mayfield Wood lived in seclusion and squalor in the Herald Square Hotel in New York City, from 1907 to 1931. An exceedingly rich woman and former member of New York high society, she had over $750,000 (remember, this was 1931) stashed in odd places such as pots and pans and in a pouch secured to her waist, as well as shoeboxes filled with yellowed securities worth thousands of dollars and, legend has it, a diamond necklace in a cracker box,

She was born Ellen Walsh, the daughter of immigrant factory workers in Massachusetts. In 1839, Ellen left home in the late 1850’s and was never heard from by her parents again. She resurfaced in New York under a new name, Ida Mayfield, passing herself off as a southern belle from a wealthy family. She quickly gathered a number of suitors, and eventually married Benjamin Wood, the congressman brother of Mayor Fernando Wood and publisher of the New York Daily News, the highest-circulating daily newspaper in the US.

It must be said that Benjamin was not the ideal husband, having affairs and even fathering a daughter, Emma, by another woman, who he and Ida raised as their own. To atone for his philandering he regularly gave Ida large sums of money. Shrewd woman that she was, she invested in stocks and when in 1899 Benjamin came to her to save him from some bad investments, she was in a position to give him $100,000. In return, she took control of the newspaper, making her one of the first women to serve as publisher of a major metropolitan newspaper.

Benjamin died in 1900, and in 1907 Ida, increasingly reclusive and paranoid, moved into the Herald Square Hotel with Emma, her sister Mary, and one million dollars in cash. The three women lived there in frugal squalor, cooking thrir own meals and rarely venturing outside. Sometime in the late 1920’s, Emma and Mary died, leaving Ida alone as she approached her 90’s, frail (weighing just 70 pounds) and nearly blind and deaf.

In 1931, Ida’s nephew, Otis F. Wood started legal proceedings to have himself declared her guardian, partly on account of her dreadful living conditions. Otis used some of Ida’s money to clean up her home and provide medical care.Ida dies 5 months after her “discovery” in 1932, aged 1932. Because her fortune had been publicized by the Boston Globe, news of her death brought hundreds of Mayfields claiming to be direct descendants out of the woodwork. The court hired a law firm to determine Ida’s true descendants and settle the estate.

The result was the court finding finding that “Ida Mayfield” was the false identity assumed by Ellen Walsh. Ten direct descendants of Ellen Walsh received $90,00 each, a fortune in the late 1930’s.