Democratic Sentinel, Volume 16, Number 38, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 October 1892 — DEATH OF “MOM” BENDER. [ARTICLE]

DEATH OF “MOM” BENDER.

Who Made Many Thousand* of Dollar* bf Humbugging People. . Confirmation of the oft-repeated assertion that it is easy for anyone not an idiot to live by his wits is found in the life of Anna, better known as “Mom” Bender, who died recently and was buried at Northwood cemetery, says the Philadelphia Times. She was 87 years of age, and no funeral that has taken place in recent years in Kensington has attracted the same number of curious people as gathered around the little dwelling, 1416 Hope street, where “Mom” breathed her last

For years this old woman has been the “Witch of Endor” for Fishtown and its adjacencies. Hull, ignorant, utterly without shrewdness, for sixtyfive years, with a pot of coffeegrounds as her capital, she has been raking in money. She has often stated that during the war her daily income was 825, and Saturdays and Sundays not infrequently SSO. Wives and mothers whose husbands and sons were in the army visited the old fortune-teller in search of comfort, and her formula was ever the same. “Yes, my dear, I’ve a gift from God. I can tell what is to De and what has been. Yes, there is a dark man who loves you; beware of him. He wants to take you across the water and dress you in gold and silver, but you wouldn’t be happy with him, my dear. Your true love is a light man,” etc., etc., and then the grimy fingers would rake over the coffee grounds. Of course, to most people the inference is inevitable that only the poor and ignorant are influenced by such rubbish. But this is a mistake as far as “Mom” Bender’s customers were concerned. A newspaper man once identified three of her customers as public school-teachers, and at least a third of the patronesses were of good social position. Fifty-nine years ago “Mom” Bender was telling fortunes in St. John street above Callowhill, and in her long life she saved at least 875,000, which was invested in small houses. Most of these, however, were taken from her by what she claimed was fraud. Four years ago she lived on Franklin road, above Belgrade street, and a neighbor with a turn for statistics is responsible for the assertion that at 25 cents per head “Mom” Bender was making from 87 to 810 a day. Fifty years ago Mrs. Jackson, a huge colored woman, who lived on Eleventh street, below Lombard, was the best known of all fortune tellers of her time, but she was very bright and shrewd in her calling, and varied her predictions to suit the style and character of her visitors, and she sold voodoo charms. One of these was exhibited not very long ago. It was a ball of wax full of short black hairs, and with two chicken feathers stuck through it and tied at both ends with a red string. Yet th*s piece of nonsense was bought to injure a partner in business in a water street firm by hoodooing him. Mrs. Jackson left a fortune to her daughters.