The Tilden Trust was a fund established in the will of Samuel J. Tilden upon his death on August 4, 1886. The will, dated April 23, 1884, provided for the establishment of a 'Tilden Trust' to "establish and maintain a free library and reading room in the City of New York." The estate Tilden left was valued at almost $10 million, consisted of $200,000 invested in iron mines in both New York and Michigan; another $200,000 was invested in real estate. A further $1 million was left to Tilden's relatives, and a total of $110,000 was dedicated to providing municipal services to New Lebanon, New York, and Yonkers, New York. The remainder, a balance of about $5 million was left to the library. George H. Tilden, a nephew of Samuel Tilden, filed a lawsuit in the New York State Supreme Court; soon followed by many other Tilden relatives. The relatives contested the 35th clause of the will, which established the Tilden Trust. The case ended in October 1891, when the New York Court of Appeals declared the clause invalid. Under the ruling, all of the money left by Tilden was to go to his descendants. Through several legal deals, the trust was still founded, and had a fund of two and a quarter million dollars. By that time, the money was not enough to fund a complete library, and in 1895, the Tilden Trust was merged with the Lenox Library and Astor Library to form the New York Public Library. Background Tilden's family was in the patent medicine business, and became wealthy through sales of Tilden's Extract, a popular drug derived from cannabis. Tilden, a politician who served as the 25th Governor of New York and was the Democratic candidate for president in the disputed election of 1876, was a skilled corporate attorney and financial manager who invested in a variety of commodities and financial instruments, including iron mines, real estate, and stock and bonds. He is the only individual to win an outright majority of the popular vote in a United States presidential election but lose the election itself. Will Samuel Jones Tilden died on August 4, 1886. He left behind an estate valued at almost 10 million dollars. The will had 43 clauses, the first 32 of which dealt with relatives. Small amounts of money, ranging from $15,000 to $150,000 were left to various heirs, including Mary B.