Randall Palmer Wade was born on August 26, 1835, in Seneca Falls, New York, to Jeptha Homer Wade (1811-1890) and Rebecca Facer Wade who died shortly after his birth. His childhood was spent as a messenger for his father's telegraph company on the line between Detroit and Jackson, Michigan. When he was seventeen, Randall could read the telegraph by sound, a rare accomplishment at that time, and he was chief operator of the "Wade Lines" for Cleveland, Columbus and Cincinnati. He and his family lived in Cleveland, Ohio, at this time. Wade attended the Kentucky Military Institute from 1854 to 1856, and he married Anna R. McGaw in 1856. The family moved to Cleveland where they had two children, Jeptha Homer Wade, Jr. (1857-1926) and Alice L. Wade. In the late 1850s Wade was a teller in Cleveland banks. In 1861 he studied law at the Ohio Law College. During the Civil War, Wade was the chief clerk of the United States Military Telegraph Department. He subsequently was transferred to the Cleveland district where he took charge of purchases and supplies for two years. Wade's postwar career was devoted largely to his business interests. In 1861 he was elected secretary-treasurer of the Cuyahoga Mining Company of which he became owner thirteen years later. His other business affiliations included being a director of the Citizens Savings and Loan Association, director of the Kalamazoo, Allegan and Grand Rapids Railroad Company, president of the American Sheet and Boiler Plate Company, and secretary and director of the Chicago and Atchison Bridge Company. He died on June 24, 1876.
The Randall P. Wade Travel Journals, 1870-1871, consist of 3 handwritten volumes, entitled "Travels Abroad", and totaling 913 pages describing experiences of 5 members of the Randall P. Wade family during a 14 month European trip (June 11, 1870 to September 6, 1871). The touring party included Mr. Wade and his mother, Mrs. J. H. Wade; wife, Anna R. Wade; daughter, Alice L.; and son, J. Homer, Jr.
The major purpose for the year long trip, according to Mr. Wade, was for their health and comfort; therefore, on two separate occasions the family spent time at health spas in Germany, Homburg and Schwalbach. Treatments prescribed for the family are recorded. Throughout the narrative, the influence of each family member's health on their travels is chronicled including his daughter's experience with typhoid fever in Italy.
The journal begins with the family boarding the French Steamship,
The journals provide a view of an upper-class, Protestant American family's travel experiences in Europe in the latter nineteenth century. A number of themes dominate the narrative: modes of travel, lodgings and services, food, architecture, landscape, money, health, shopping, religious observances, and customs, behavior, traits and social classes of particular nationality groups.
On three occasions the events of the Franco-Prussian war and its influence on the family's travels are related. Although the family was in Prussia when the war commenced, most of their travels were in other countries during its conduct. They returned to Frankfurt on the day peace negotiations were concluded.
The family's travels also occurred at the time when Italy was experiencing great changes during the first year of King Victor Emanuel's reign. Wade remarks on some of the changes relating to education and sanitation. An audience with the Pope is recorded in detail along with Mr. Wade's observations on the Vatican's responses to the loss of the Papal States.
The journal concludes with a summary of Wade's opinions about the countries they visited, the people, the best modes of travel within Europe, architecture, availability of money through letters of credit, and hotel services.
The collection is arranged chronologically.
The researcher should also consult MS 3292 Jeptha Homer Wade Family Papers; MS 5228 Jeptha Homer Wade Family Papers, Series II; PG 59 Jeptha Homer Wade Family Photographs; and PG 597 Jeptha Homer Wade Family Photographs, Series II.
Processed by Evelyn M. Lutz in 1986.
None.
[Container ___, Folder ___ ] MS 3934 Randall Palmer Wade Travel Journals, Western Reserve Historical Society, Cleveland, Ohio
Gift of Jeptha H. Wade in 1983.
The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the library's online public access catalog.