BANK CASHIER WOOD.

New York, 1895

The Man Who Handles the Money of Jamaica People.

William L. Wood, cashier of the Bank of Jamaica, is widely known as a brisk, though cautious, business man, with a reputation for probity that is bombproof. He was born in Brooklyn in 1857, his father being the Hon. Alfred M. Wood, ex-mayor of that city and colonel of the fighting Fourteenth regiment, when it was doing its splendid service at the front in the late Rebellion. William L. is the colonel's only son. He was educated at Alexander Military academy, in White Plains, and after leaving school began his business career with a brokerage firm in Wall street. He soon developed keen business tact, a quality his employers were not slow to recognize, and gradually he was advanced to positions of greater importance, which afforded broader fields for the exercise of his faculties.

In May, 1889, the Bank of Jamaica was chartered, and the gentlemen interested in that institution offered him the position of cashier, which he accepted. His career in the bank speaks for itself. The splendid success that the institution has achieved is due largely to his careful and conservative management. Nothing could ever induce him to depart one iota from the line of policy which he, as cashier, laid down as being calculated to best conserve the interests of the bank. A year ago, when financial storms were wrecking monetary institutions all over the country, or battering wildly at their doors, the bank of Jamaica, with Mr. Wood at the helm, bravely weathered the storm, never once exhibiting the slightest signs of weakness. He is highly esteemed by the patrons of the bank for his uniform courtesy and his readiness to give attention to all matters which may come before him officially.

Mr. Wood was for many years connected with the Williamsburg athletic club, always having a fondness for athletic sports. He served a little short of seven years in the ranks of the Twenty-third regiment, and is at present a member of the Veteran association of company H. He lives in Queens, in a comfortable home that he built nine or ten years ago, and now that his father has returned from his duties in Italy, he has taken up his residence near him.

Like his father, Cashier Wood in politics is an ardent Republican. While he has done some hard work for that party, he never sought a political office, and never held one. It may be truthfully said of him that he would not take a political office, though it were offered to him on a golden salver. He gives strict attention to the business of the bank, and is never absent from his post, except when out of town, which rarely happens. To sum up, Mr. Wood is "all wool and a yard wide." — Brooklyn Times.

—Reprinted in The Long Island Farmer, Jamaica, NY, June 21, 1895, p. 8.