[5] His sister Lydia married Robert Hoke of North Carolina, a Confederate general during the American Civil War and businessman.

For many years Van Wyck took an active interest in Democratic Party matters, attending many conventions, state and national.

Van Wyck is generally regarded as selected by the leaders of Tammany Hall as a man who would do little to interfere with their running of the city.

The high price would have put ice beyond the reach of many of the city's poor—Tammany's main power base in the years of waves of immigration.

In addition, Van Wyck, whose salary as mayor was only $15,000, owned and had apparently not paid for, $680,000 worth of American Ice stock.

The Ice Trust Scandal destroyed Van Wyck's political career and was generally reckoned to have cost Tammany the elections of 1901, which was won by the Fusion reformist slate led by Seth Low.

[6] Governor Theodore Roosevelt initiated an investigation, which determined that Van Wyck had not been personally implicated in the Ice Trust Scandal.