The Maryville times. (Maryville, Tenn.) 1884-1944, 1920-03-24
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 II, $780, Leonard
Wood, 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 a 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-
rope, Asia and South America wanted
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-
buttons 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 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 a big job as
NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. 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
reer, in the forces and influences which
have shaped his active life.
Leonard Wood was born in the vii
Iage of Winchester, N H., On October
0, 1860, and is therefore fifty-nine
years of age. He comes of an old
American stock which settled in New
England long before the Revolution.
One of his ancestors, Peregrine White,
was the first white child born in
Plymouth colony. Another ancestor,
John Nixon, was one CT Washington's
Brigadiers, fighting through the Revo-
luton. Leonard Woods father, DR..
Charles Jewett Wood, left his wife and
infant son, the future General, to re-
spond to LincOln's first call for volun-
teers. He was invaded home just be-
fore the Confederacy surrendered.
After the Civil War the family NOV
ed to Cape Cod, Massachusetts, set
thing in the village of Pocasset, where
Leonard Wood grew up, attended the
district school and later Pierce Acade-
my, Middleboro, Mass. Here he dis
tlnguished himself as an all-around
athlete He showed a fondness for the
languages and history. In his work he
was perseverlng rather than ready.
(To be continued.)