Ida Wood: A Woman Cloaked in Mystery

Ida Mayfield Wood (1838–1932) was a famous American recluse and the third wife of politician and newspaper publisher and editor Benjamin Wood who was 18 years her senior and married to his second wife. When she died he married Ida who had been his mistress for quite some time. Actually they had a daughter before marriage, Emma Wood.
Benjamin Wood was the publisher of the New York Daily News, and he had been a member of Congress three times and also the New York State Senate so as his wife she gained access to many rich and famous people, like e.g. Abraham Lincoln. However, when her husband died in 1900 she became a recluse, living with her sister, Mary E. Mayfield, and her daughter, Emma Wood, in some hotel rooms.They had almost no contact with anyone, not even the hotel employees, until Mary got very ill and died. (Emma had died in hospital prior to this). 
Now people became aware of her life in squalor although she was extremely rich. This may have been seen as a proof that she was incompetent and some of her relatives claimed control over her wealth. They had her moved to some other rooms in the hotel in which were considered easier to keep an eye on her. When she died in 1932 it was found out that she was not out of the noble family she had always said. Actually she was the daughter of a poor Irishman, and her "daughter", Emma, was in reality her sister.