The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1920-04-01
LEONARD WOODS
ACTIVE CAREER
Brief Story of His Life as Doctor,
Soldier and Statesman-His
Boyhood and Student Days.
BY JOHN G. HOLME.

On December l., 1879, Leonard
Wood a Major-General Of Volunteers
in the United States Army, received
one of the most remarkable orders that
any government has ever issued to
any army officer.
He was made Governor-General of
an island which for four hundred
years had been colonial dependency
of one of the most reactionary mon
arches on the face of the earth and
was commanded to train its million
and a half inhabitants, who had never
had any voice in their government, for
republican self-government. He was
ordered to perform this gigantic task
as quickly as possible, for the diplo-
matte telescopes of all the govern
ments of the world were trained on the
United States and the island, which
happened to be, in natural resources,
probably the richest spot of its size on
the globe. The governments of Eu-
to know whether Uncle Sam really
meant what he said when he pledged
himself to free Cuba, or whether he
was really going to annex Cuba with
her ineXhaustible sugar bowl.
The work before Wood was to build,
rebuild and repair all the civil insti-
tutions of Cuba, such as the courts, the
customs and postal departments, the
school and electoral systems, establish
lines of communication, expel the cpl
denies, train native public officials and
supervise the writing of the Constitu-
ton. When Cuba was able to stand
on her own feet, Wood was to come
home.
Two years before the man who was
commanded to perform this eXtraordi-
nary task had been an obscure army
doctor with the rank and pay of a cap
tain. He had distinguished himself in
the Spanish-American War as Colonel
Of the Rough Riders, the famous regi.
ment of aristocrats and cowpunchers
of which Theodore Roosevelt later be
came the commander when Wood was
advanced to the rank of Brigadier- Gen
eral. Wood had done big job as
Military of Santiago de Cuba
and his success there had paved the
way for his Governorship of all Cuba
Now that he looms big as Presidential
possibility, the American people are
more than ever interested in his ca
eer, in the forces and influences which
ave shaped his active life.
Leonard Wood was born in the vii
ige of Winchester, N H., On Octobe
1860, and is therefore fifty-nin,
ars of age. He comes Of an oil
American stock which settled In New
England long before the Revolution
One of his ancestors, Peregrine White
was the first white child born fl
Plymouth colony. Another ancestor
John Nixon, was one of Washington
.Brigadiers, fighting through the Revo
luton. Leonard Woods father, d.
Charles Jewett Wood, left his wife an
infant son, the future General, to n
spond to Lincoln's first call for volur
teers He was invaded home just b,
fore the Confederacy surrendered.
After the Civil War the family mo-
ed to Cape Cod, Massachusetts,, Sc
Ting in the village of Pocasset, wher
Leonard Wood grew up, attended tn
district school and later Pierce Acad
my, Middleboro, Mass. Here he di
tinguished himself as an allaroun
athlete. He showed a fondness for ii
languages and history. In his work /
was persevering rather than ready.
ITO be cOntinued)