Benjamin Wood

Benjamin Wood (October 13, 1820 - February 21, 1900) was an American politician and entrepreneur from New York during the American Civil War. Wood, the son of Benjamin and Rebecca (Lehman) Wood, was born October 13, 1820 in Shelbyville, Kentucky, and was the brother of the representative of the US Congress and the mayor of New York, Fernando Wood. The Woods family moved from Kentucky to New York, and Benjamin Wood was educated in New York. He took up trade and shipping, and in 1860 he bought the New York Daily News (not to be confused with the current New York Daily News, which was founded in 1919), the editor and publisher of which he was until his death in 1900. In 1861, the federal government actually closed the newspaper (stopping its delivery through the postal service) as sympathizing with the Confederation during the Civil War. During the break, he wrote a novel: Fort Lafayette or Love and Secession. Wood managed to reopen the newspaper after 18 months. In the period from 1863 to 1865, letters from readers (southern spies) with encoded messages for readers in the south were printed in the newspaper, the editor was arrested in 1865. After that, Benjamin Wood was considered a traitor by many citizens of the north. Wood was elected Democrat at the 37th and 38th Congresses of the United States (March 4, 1861 - March 3, 1865). He was a member of the New York State Senate (4th D.) in 1866 and 1867. And elected to the 47th Congress of the United States (March 4, 1881 - March 3, 1883). He died in New York on February 21, 1900, and was buried in the Calvary Cemetery in Queens.