Eliza Haycraft

Eliza Haycraft was a wealthy brothel madam and philanthropist, who donated money to the widows and orphans of the American Civil War.

Biography

Haycraft was born on the 14th of Febuary, 1820. She moved to St. Louis, Missouri from Callaway County, Missouri in 1840, reportedly arriving in a canoe. She fled her original home after being cast out by her parents, because she was seduced by a lover at the age of twenty. She arrived in St. Louis destitute, with only the option of selling herself as a courtesan. Haycraft took advantage of the brief legalization of prostitution in her city, and soon became the owner and manager of a brothel, doing well in business despite her inability to read and write. She signed her name with an "X", and avoided using banks. She bought commercial and residential property, and rented it back out. By the time the Civil War had started, she had two working operations in the continually-growing St. Louis. At the end of the war, she had five. Throughout her career, she was known for being a generous philanthropist, refusing to turn away the city’s poor, offering them help and financial aid. In 1870, her health began to decline, and she died on December 5th, 1871, at the age of 51. She left an estate valued at over a quarter million dollars, about 30 million U.S dollars today. More than 5,000 people attended her funeral, and she was buried without a marker in the Bellefontaine Cemetery, in a lot that could have held twenty-one people. She still does not have a headstone.