McAdoo, William Gibbs (1863-1941), served as secretary of the treasury in President Woodrow Wilson’s Cabinet from 1913 to 1918. The Federal Reserve System was created during his term (see Federal Reserve System ). He also served as director general of United States railroads from 1917 to 1919, while the government operated them as a wartime measure.
McAdoo became president of the New York and New Jersey Railroad in 1902, and built the first traffic tunnels under the Hudson River. He served as acting chairman of the Democratic National Committee in 1912, when Wilson was first elected president. He was a Democratic U.S. senator from California from 1933 to 1938. McAdoo was born near Marietta, Georgia, and attended the University of Tennessee.
