William Wood (banker, born 1808)

Wood was born in Glasgow, Scotland, on October 21, 1808. His father was a prominent Glasgow merchant and banker who could trace his lineage back to Admiral Sir Andrew Wood, a hero of the British Navy.{{cite book |last1=Morrison |first1=George Austin |title=History of Saint Andrew's Society of the State of New York, 1756-1906 |date=1906 |publisher=Order of the Society at Press of the Evening Post Job Printing Office |pages=[https://archive.org/details/historysaintand00morrgoog/page/n200 138]-140 |url=https://archive.org/details/historysaintand00morrgoog |access-date=6 September 2019 |language=en}}

At age 7, he went to William Angus' Grammar School in St. Mungo for two years, followed by the Glasgow Grammar School and Dr. Duncan's School at Ruthwell. In October 1821, he entered The Glasgow Academy until age sixteen, when he matriculated at the University of St Andrews, where he took the second and third mathematical prizes. After St Andrews, he attended the University of Glasgow where he took the highest prize in Natural Philosophy.{{cite book |last1=Greene |first1=Richard Henry |last2=Stiles |first2=Henry Reed |last3=Dwight |first3=Melatiah Everett |last4=Morrison |first4=George Austin |last5=Mott |first5=Hopper Striker |last6=Totten |first6=John Reynolds |last7=Pitman |first7=Harold Minot |last8=Forest |first8=Louis Effingham De |last9=Ditmas |first9=Charles Andrew |last10=Mann |first10=Conklin |last11=Maynard |first11=Arthur S. |title=The New York Genealogical and Biographical Record |date=1916 |publisher=New York Genealogical and Biographical Society |pages=[https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_jNcUAAAAYAAJ/page/n263 241]-244 |url=https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_jNcUAAAAYAAJ |access-date=6 September 2019 |language=en}}

Shortly after his graduation, he began working in the family mercantile business J. & R. Dennistoun & Company. On November 3, 1828, he came to the United States for the firm, remaining only a short time before he returned to Scotland. In 1830, he returned to New York on Hibernia, married there, and returned to Glasgow, where he stayed until 1832 when he relocated to Liverpool to manage the branch of the business there. While in Liverpool, "in conjunction with Richard Cobden, he canvassed South Lancashire in the interests of the senior partner of Brown Brothers, the eminent banking house, who was about to seek the votes of that constituency for election to Parliament."

In 1844, Wood returned to the United States and opened Dennistoun, Wood & Co., remaining a partner until his retirement from the firm on December 31, 1860. In 1863, he assumed the management of the British and American Bank, where he worked until 1869.

In May 1869, Mayor A. Oakey Hall appointed Wood a Commissioner of Public Instruction and in May 1870, he was made a Commissioner of Docks and Ferries, serving through the administration of Mayor William F. Havemeyer until May 21, 1873.{{cite news |title=A New Commissioner of Docks |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1872/01/04/archives/city-affairs-present-aspect-of-the-re-form-movement-the-question.html |access-date=25 November 2018 |work=New York Times |date=January 4, 1872|page=8}}

In June 1870, he was appointed to the commission to expand Broadway to succeed Alexander Turney Stewart who retired. Wood served on the Board of Education until April 4, 1873 "when the Reform Party legislated him out of office." He was reappointed by Mayor William H. Wickham as a Commissioner of Education and eventually became President of the Board, serving almost twenty years where he was instrumental in the establishment of the Normal College for the training of teachers.

Wood was a member of the Century Association and served as an elder of the Collegiate Dutch Reformed Church, although a member of the Congregational Church. In December 1828, he was elected a member of the Saint Andrew's Society of the State of New York and served as president of the society from 1865 to 1867.

File:Elizabeth Wood Kane Salt Lake City 1872-1873.png, {{Circa|1872}}.]]

On September 15, 1830, he was married to Harriet Amelia Kane (1810–1846), daughter of John Kane and Maria (née Codwise) Kane. Together, they were the parents of six children, including:{{cite book |last1=Reynolds |first1=Cuyler |title=Genealogical and Family History of Southern New York and the Hudson River Valley: A Record of the Achievements of Her People in the Making of a Commonwealth and the Building of a Nation |date=1914 |publisher=Lewis Historical Publishing Company |page=[https://archive.org/details/genealogicalfami00reyn/page/1158 1158] |url=https://archive.org/details/genealogicalfami00reyn |access-date=6 September 2019 |language=en}}

• John Walter Wood (1831–1905), who married Sabina Redmond (1836–1905), sister of Goold H. Redmond and Annie Redmond Cross.
• Charlotte Matilda Wood (b. 1832), who married the Rev. Edward Bell, Vicar of Wakefield.{{cite book |last1=Shields |first1=Charles |title=Philosophia Ultima |date=2009 |publisher=Applewood Books |isbn=9781429017886 |page=42 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6Jp665jWX3AC&pg=PR42 |access-date=6 September 2019 |language=en}}
• Elizabeth Dennistoun Wood (1836–1909), who married her second cousin, Thomas Leiper Kane, son of John Kintzing Kane, a United States District Court judge (his father was a first cousin of her mother).
• Harriet Maria Wood (1838–1904), who died unmarried.{{cite book |last1=Wood |first1=John Walter |title=William Wood (born 1656) of Earlsferry, Scotland and Some of His Descendants and Their Connections |date=1916 |publisher=Tuttle, Morehouse & Taylor |page=[https://archive.org/details/williamwoodborn100wood/page/15 15] |url=https://archive.org/details/williamwoodborn100wood |access-date=6 September 2019 |language=en}}
• William Wood Jr. (1841–1867)
• Helen Kane Wood (1843–1919), who married George Burghall Watts Jr.{{cite book |last1=Wood |first1=William |title=Autobiography of William Wood |date=1895 |publisher=J. S. Babcock |url=https://archive.org/details/autobiographyofw02wood |page=[https://archive.org/details/autobiographyofw02wood/page/389 389] |access-date=6 September 2019 |language=en}}

After his first wife's death giving birth to their seventh child, he remarried to Margaret Lawrence (1823–1871), the daughter of James Van Horne Lawrence and Emily Augusta (née Kane) Lawrence. Together, they were the parents of four children, including:{{cite book |last1=Aitken |first1=William Benford |title=Distinguished Families in America, Descended from Wilhelmus Beekman and Jan Thomasse Van Dyke |date=1912 |publisher=Knickerbocker Press |page=129 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cZ0xAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA129 |access-date=6 September 2019 |language=en}}

• Dennistoun Wood (d. 1904),{{cite news |title=Death List of a Day. Dennistoun Wood |url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1902/01/04/119086491.pdf |access-date=6 September 2019 |work=The New York Times |date=4 January 1902}} who married Edith Phillips, daughter of Howard C. Phillips, on January 2, 1875.{{cite book |last1=Leonard |first1=John William |last2=Downs |first2=Winfield Scott |last3=Lewis |first3=M. M. |title=Who's who in Engineering |date=1922 |publisher=John W. Leonard Corporation |page=1410 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FUAmAQAAIAAJ&pg=PA1410 |access-date=6 September 2019 |language=en}}
• Chalmers Wood (1856–1924), who married Ellen Appleton Smith, daughter of John Cotton Smith.
• Henry Duncan Wood, who married Ellen E. Pulsifer, daughter of William H. Pulsifer of St. Louis, Missouri, on April 24, 1878.
• Van Horne Lawrence Wood (b. 1860), who married Bessie Dora Biggs.

After the death of his second wife, he married thirdly to Helen Mason, daughter of Henry Mason and Lydia (née James) Mason, on December 6, 1883.

Wood died on October 1, 1894, at 4 West 18th Street, his home in New York City.{{cite news |title=The Obituary Record. William Wood |url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1894/10/03/106835615.pdf |access-date=6 September 2019 |work=The New York Times |date=3 October 1894}} After a funeral at the Collegiate Reformed Church, he was buried at Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn.{{cite news |title=WILL OF WILLIAM WOOD FILED.; An Autobiography One of the Bequests Left to a Daughter. |url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1894/12/05/106842567.pdf |access-date=6 September 2019 |work=The New York Times |date=5 December 1894}}{{cite news |title=WILLIAM WOOD'S MEMORY HONORED.; Address to Normal College Graduates on the Founder of Their Institution. |url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1894/10/28/106838764.pdf |access-date=6 September 2019 |work=The New York Times |date=28 October 1894}}

{{reflist|30em}}

• {{find a Grave|57240098}}
• [https://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/portrait/mw150676/Richard-James-Cross-William-Wood-Henry-Duncan-Wood-John-Walter-Cross Photograph of Richard James Cross; William Wood; Henry Duncan Wood; John Walter Cross], {{Circa|1870}}, at the National Portrait Gallery, London.

{{authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wood, William}}

Category:1808 births

Category:1894 deaths

Category:Businesspeople from Glasgow

Category:Scottish emigrants to the United States

Category:American bankers

Category:Commissioners of docks and ferries of the City of New York

Category:Presidents of the Saint Andrew's Society of the State of New York

Category:19th-century American businesspeople

Category:Burials at Green-Wood Cemetery

Category:19th-century American merchants