Benjamin Wood (American politician)

[1] In 1861 the federal government effectively shut down the paper by suspending its delivery via the postal service as being sympathetic with the Confederacy.

In the period from 1863 to 1865 the paper printed personal columns and the War Department alleged that they were used by Confederate spies for coded communications.

[3] The managing editor William McKellar was arrested and brought before a congressional investigative committee.

[6] Wood died in New York City on February 21, 1900, and was interred at Calvary Cemetery in Queens.

[7][8] His wife Ida became a recluse and miser, who resided at New York City's Herald Square Hotel for 24 years, refusing contact with the outside world, and was the subject of a famous court case after her death in 1932, when her true identity of Ellen Walsh came to light.