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ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY
Weed passed away February ii, 1906. It cut, and engaged in the banking business
is difficult, in this necessarily limited
space, to do justice to the character of
such a man, combining as it does the
varied qualifications which fitted him to
play the important part which was his at
a time of unprecedented crisis in our national
history, embracing the Civil War
and the momentous period which followed
it. Essentially progressive, he pos-
sessed, also, the ability to read the future
and to discern what was necessary for
the rebuilding and restoration of a land
recently at war and reunited under condi-
tions which had no place in its history.
Few men of his time accomplished as
much as he for the development of the
New South in the State of Georgia.
William Maury Weed, son of James
Dunning and Sarah Fanny (Maury)
Weed, born May 12, 1870, in Savannah,
Georgia, received his preparatory edu-
cation at King's School in Stamford. In
1892 he graduated from Harvard Univer-
sity, with the degree of Bachelor of Arts.
For three years, thereafter, he pursued
special studies abroad, spending one year
at the Technische Hocher Schule of Hanover,
and two years at the Koeniglische
Bergakademie at Clausthel.
Upon his return to the United States,
Mr. Weed entered the German banking
house of Knauth, Nachod & Kuehne, of
New York City, remaining there until the
outbreak of the Spanish-American War.
He was one of the first forty men to enlist
in the navy, went to Santiago and
served through the campaign under Admiral
Sampson. After the war Mr. Weed
spent about two years in travel, and then
engaged in the steamship business. For
four years he was in Havana as agent
for the West India Steamship Company,
going there on December 25, 1900. In
1906, Mr. Weed resigned his position, returned
to his home in Noroton, Connecti-
in New York City. He also purchased,
in 191 1, a barren wilderness known as
Brush Island, on the shore of Cove Pond.
There is, perhaps, no more picturesque
spot on the Connecticut shore and there
is certainly none more beautiful, now
that Mr. Weed has caused the brush to be
452
cleared away and has developed the land
into a fertile and, in all respects, a model
farm. About fifty acres are under the
plough and the estate is devoted to the
raising of general crops and the breeding
of beef cattle.
Politically, Mr. Weed is a Republican
and a number of years ago was chosen by
his party to serve on the Board of Finance
of Darien, Connecticut. He retained the
office ten or eleven years, with an inter-
mission of two years. For the last four
years he has been elected on the Democratic
ticket, a striking tribute to his non-
partisan interest in community affairs.
While at Harvard, Mr. Weed became
a member of the Institute of 1770, and also
of the Hasty Pudding Club. He belongs
to the Harvard Club, the University Club
and the Georgia Society, all of New York.
He is a life member of the Connecticut
Harvard Club, and was one of the founders
of the Wee Burn Country Club, from
which he resigned about two years ago.
He is senior warden of St. Luke's Protectant
Episcopal Church at Noroton.
Mr. Weed married, December 29, 1909,
Julia Victoria Kaufmann, daughter of
Bernard and Charlotte Wilhelmina (Von
Hoffmann) Kaufmann, of New York
City.
After an exceptionally varied and suc-
cessful career as financier and business
man, Mr. Weed has returned to the neighborhood
of his ancestral home and to the
quiet pursuits of rural life. In doing so
he has taken with him the aggressive
force and active public spirit always char-