ABSTRACT
BY the time Wood had been Mayor six or seven months, he had lost the respect of the church element that he had won earlier in the year. But Wood was not worrying. He had some men, high in Tammany and equally high in the public esteem, supporting him. One of them, like Kipling's Hibernian, was of infinite resource and sagacity. This was Samuel Jones Tilden. He was two years younger than Wood, nine years older than Tweed, and had blue eyes like both of these politicians. But unlike them, he was country-bred. He was born in New Lebanon, New York, February 9, 1814. His father was a farmer. He was of Puritan stock on both sides. The first Tilden arrived in America on the ship Ann in 1623. His name was Thomas. He hailed from Tenterden, England, where his brother was Mayor. One of Tilden's collateral ancestors was Colonel Daniel Tilden who raised his own company of soldiers a year before the Revolution was an actuality. The Colonel was a friend of Jefferson, and aided in founding the Democratic Party. On his mother's side, Tilden traced his descent to William Jones, Lieutenant Governor of the Colony of New Haven.
