Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1900-04-19
DEATH REVEALED ROMANCE.
STORY OF A WOMAN WHO LEFT
HER HOME FOR THE MAN
SHE LOVED.
Prematurely Aged Now-Remained
at His Side Till He Breathed His
Last in His Miserable Howell
Death Alleged t o he Due to star.
walton.


NEW YORK. April 1S.-In the death
of Ovington C. Benedict, formerly .
partner of the jewelry house of Bene-
dict Brothers. in the Hudson Street
Hospital on Saturday, after living for
more than II years in a miserable hovel
in an alleyway, there was revealed q
romano which had bound together
two lives in lasting ties.
When curiosity was attracted to the
place Mr.. Benedict called home IL was
learned that the wretched quarters had
been started by a woman who said
she had kept house for him for years.
She gave her name as Annie Green.
She is short and slight of figure. and
her shock of gray hair, with her emac-
lated features, gives an appearance OF
age, but of her 50 years she told me
yesterday is had beer spent in COM
partnership with Mr.. Benedict.
She had been a widow for three
years when she met him and she said,
he had given her a troth of marriage.
This was after the firm he had estab-
lished when he left his brothers had
met with disastrous reyerses and, the
woman said, he kept postponing the
fulillment of the troth until his busi-
ness affairs could be mended suficients
" to support them in suitable styl0
She said her family had landed possess
sions in Wisconsin and her mother 10
now in Providence, r. l., where she
lives with another daughter. She had
nc seen them in II years. She some
times did homework and sewing and
contributed to the support of the place.
When a reporter went to the box
like howell of Mr.. Benedict yesterday
afternoon he found a porter from tho
firm of Benedict Brothers there ar
ranging for the removal OF Mr.. Ben
edict's effects. He said that Mr.. Bene-
dict had been in receipt of a regular
allowance from the firm every week,
and that the firm always paid the rent
of the place, $12 a month. He had
been urged repeatedly To move to a
better place, but he had always re-
fused. He also declined an offer OF
suitable furniture.
There is only one close, stuffy room
for living, eating and sleeping in the
place. 1t is a space rooted over be-
tween brick walls, with a floor OF
sandy soil. admitting plenty Of cold
and rain. but little light. There was a
dying fire in a small stove. over which
the woman had been trying 10 brew
tea. and close by was a dry piece OF
roll. Old clothing. packages OF papers
and trunks were stored about the place,
crowding the narrow quarters, so that
more than W. persons could hardly
move about at the same time.
Access to the place is difficult En-
trance through an adjoining apartment
house leads into a yard. and a broken
gate in a fence admits To the alleyway
in which the howell is built The visit
or must pass beneath bars and wires
place.
Miss Green said that for two days
before his removal to the hospital Mr..
Benedict had lain on the rude bed, too
ill to eat. Neighbors told me that they
had been awakened during the night
after his death by her grief. she Wis
tied the Hudson Street Hospital yes
terday morning before the removal Of
the body to the old homestead on Sta
ten Island.
Frederick c. Benedict, OF Jersey
City, and Read Benedict, Of New
Brighton, Staten Island, brothers OF
Ovington C. and the Rev. A. j. Kerr,
pastor of the Broome Street Taberna-
Gle, where Mr.. Benedict was a frequent
~worshIpper, denied yesterday that his
death was due to starvation. The
brothers declared that the family had
made him a weekly allowance for the
last 20 years. and that 1914 was found
I'm his pockets in the hospital. They
said they had always been on friendly
terms with him, and bis separations
from them in business was due TO his
desire to start another Jeweiry house.
"oyington was Of a peculiar dis7ogI-
ton" said Read Benedict. and lived
In his little shop in Hudson street
from choice and not from necessity.
We have many times offered TO provide
a good home for him. but he always
declared he was happy where he was.
We therefore did the best we could
under the circumstances regularly pay
ing his rent and providing him with
| sufficient money for his needs. perhaps
more. / provided him with a new
oyercoat this winter and he gave that
away TO a man in the street, who aD-
| peared to be suffering from cold