Rose Bray, acct. 16583

Additional Information on Rose Bray:

When she opened her Emigrant bank account, Rose Bray was a domestic servant for a notable German-born chemist, Lewis Feuchtwanger, who consulted with the U.S. government on the composition of its coinage and pushed the mint to add nickel to its least valuable coins. By 1870, Bray was employed in the household of Charles O’Conor, one of the city’s most prominent and wealthy attorneys. Around the time that Bray went to work for O’Conor, he became notorious for agreeing to represent Jefferson Davis after he was charged with treason by the federal government at the end of the Civil War. O’Conor repaired his reputation, to some extent, by serving pro bonoon the team that prosecuted “Boss” William Tweed, the corrupt New York Democratic leader, from 1871 to 1875. O’Conor bequeathed to Bray $10,000, equal to more than $250,000 in 2019, when he died in 1884.