Background
James T. Woodward was the second child born to Henry Williams Woodward and Mary Edge Webb at Edgewood Plantation in Gambrills Station, Anne Arundel County, Maryland.
While his family gathered tremendous wealth during the American Civil War by selling textiles to the Confederates, James spent the war years in school.
Woodward moved to New York after the war and took a job at Ross, Campbell & Company where his business acumen was recognized. He became a director in the Hanover National Bank in the early 1870s. In 1877, his brother William Woodward (who founded the New York Cotton Exchange) and he pooled their funds and bought a large portion of the bank. James was elected president of the bank the same year. Under his leadership the deposits of the bank grew from $6,000,000 to $100,000,000.
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