Finding aid for the Jeptha Homer Wade Family Papers, Series II

Biography of the Jeptha Homer Wade Family

While this collection documents the history of the Wade family, extending from Jeptha H. Wade (1811-1890), it also documents some of the history of families who became related to the Wades through marriages throughout subsequent generations. Namely, the Howe and Garretson families, who became intertwined with the Wades through the marriage of Ellen Garretson (her mother was a Howe) and Jeptha Homer Wade II in 1878, the Love family who became intertwined with the Wades through the marriage of George Garretson Wade and Irene Love in 1909, and the Sedwick family which became intertwined in the Wade family through the marriage of Elizabeth (Irene Elizabeth) Wade and Ellery Sedgwick, Jr. in 1941.

Jeptha Homer Wade (1811-1890) was born in Seneca County, New York, on August 11, 1811, the youngest of nine children born to Jeptha and Sarah Allen Wade. At the age of twelve he was apprenticed to a tanner and later worked in a brick factory. At age 18 he moved to Pottsville, Pennsylvania, where he worked as a carpenter. After returning home a year later to Seneca Falls, New York, his skill as a woodworker led to a partnership in a sash, blind and door company by 1831. Ill health forced a change in occupation and in 1837, following in the steps of his friend Randall Palmer, Wade became a portrait and landscape artist, a calling which he followed for more than a decade. He began his painting career in New York state. He continued this work after moving his family to Michigan in 1840, and spent the winters of his last painting years in the Mississippi Valley, particularly Louisiana and Mississippi. He next turned his interest to the emerging telegraph industry. In 1847, as a sub-contractor to J. J. Speed, he constructed a telegraph line between Detroit and Jackson, Michigan, part of the Buffalo and Milwaukee Telegraph Company, the first line in operation west of Buffalo, New York. After his work in Michigan, Wade continued as a sub-contractor in the telegraph field. He moved his family to Milan, Ohio, in 1849, where he set up a telegraph office. That same year he decided to go into business for himself. He organized the Cleveland and Cincinnati Telegraph Company, retaining control as majority stockholder. A line between Cleveland and Cincinnati, Ohio, was built utilizing the Morse telegraph system. This line was later extended to St. Louis, Missouri. Wade also acted as an agent for the Morse system in Ohio with an office in Columbus, Ohio, his home after 1850. He was instrumental in the construction of the "Lake Line" between Cleveland and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

In 1853 competing regional telegraph lines in Ohio and Michigan were consolidated into the Cornell-Wade-Speed Telegraph lines with Wade, John James Speed Jr., and Ezra Cornell joined in a loose partnership. In April 1854, Wade and Speed sold their holdings in the lines, including unsold interest in the Morse patent rights in the old Northwest region, to the New York and Mississippi Valley Printing Telegraph Company. Additionally, Wade was named principal agent for the company, responsible for the construction of new lines and issuance of patent licenses in the Midwest. Two years later, in 1856, the New York and Mississippi Valley Telegraph Company, after consolidation with other small independent lines, changed its name and became the Western Union Telegraph Company. In 1857, Wade moved to Cleveland as the company's first general agent. He built two adjoining houses on Huron Street for himself and his son, Randall Palmer Wade, who had followed him to Cleveland from Columbus. Wade was instrumental in the growth and organization of Western Union, as illustrated in his negotiations with four independent telegraph companies to consolidate and then the terms for the construction of a transcontinental telegraph line from California through Salt Lake City, Utah Territory, in 1860. The line was completed in less than one year. In 1866 Wade became president of Western Union, succeeding Hiram Sibley. Ill health forced his retirement after one year and he returned to his home in Cleveland, Ohio.

Wade's business interests were extensive in Cleveland. He was an incorporator of the Cleveland Rolling Mill Company in 1863 and the Citizens Savings and Loan Association in 1867. He also had large real estate and railroad holdings, serving on the board of directors of eight different lines. Wade was active in community enterprises, including the development of Lake View Cemetery. In 1881, he offered the City of Cleveland seventy-five acres of land near East 107th Street and Euclid Avenue for a public park, and in 1882 the land was deeded to the city. Wade was also instrumental in the founding of Case Institute of Applied Science in 1880. Jeptha Homer Wade married Rebecca Loueza Facer (?-1836) in 1832 and had one son, Randall Palmer Wade, born in 1835. After Rebecca Wade died in 1836, he married Susan Maranda Fleming (?-1889) in 1837. Wade died August 9, 1890, and was buried in Lake View Cemetery in Cleveland, Ohio.

Randall Palmer Wade (1835-1876) was born on August 26, 1835, in Seneca Falls, New York. He spent his youth on the Michigan frontier working as a telegraph messenger. In 1850, when he was seventeen years of age, the family moved to Columbus, Ohio, where he worked as a telegrapher with the Cleveland-Cincinnati Telegraph Company until he entered the Kentucky Military Institute in 1852.

In 1856 Randall Palmer Wade graduated from the Kentucky Military Institute and rejoined his father's company, moving with his father to Cleveland the following year. The same year Randall Palmer Wade was elected secretary of the Cleveland- Cincinnati Telegraph Company. At the outbreak of the Civil War, Randall Palmer Wade became chief clerk of the United States War Department's military telegraph operations. After his resignation from the War Department in 1862, Wade returned to his business activities in Cleveland, including his association with the Cuyahoga Mining Company, a concern he wholly owned by 1873. He was also involved as a partner in Cleveland's largest jewelry store, Hogan and Wade, from 1867 to 1870. He was a director of the Citizens Savings and Loan Association and of the Kalamazoo-Allegan and Grand Rapids Rail Road Company, president of the American Sheet and Boiler Plate Company, and secretary- treasurer and director of the Chicago and Atchison Bridge Company. Randall Palmer Wade married Anna Rebecca McGaw (?-1910) in 1856. They had two children, Jeptha Homer Wade Jr. (also known as Jeptha Homer Wade II and Homer) and Alice L. Wade Everett (?-1916). Randall Palmer Wade died June 24, 1876, and was buried in Cleveland, Ohio.

Jeptha Homer Wade II (1857-1926) (Homer/ Jeptha Homer Wade Jr.) was born in Cleveland, Ohio, on October 15, 1857, the son of Randall Palmer Wade and Anna Rebecca McGaw Wade and the grandson of Jeptha Homer Wade. He was a graduate of Mt. Pleasant Academy in Ossining, New York, and Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio. After work in the telegraph industry, he joined the banking community in Cleveland. Upon the death of his father in 1876 he developed a close relationship with his grandfather Wade and became his confidante and business associate. During his lifetime Wade served as an executive in more than forty-five companies, including eleven railway firms, nine mining companies, eight manufacturing concerns, and four banking institutions.

Jeptha Homer Wade II was an active philanthropist, serving as a trustee of the Western Reserve Historical Society, Western Reserve University, Adelbert College, and the Cleveland Museum of Natural History. He was an incorporator of The Cleveland Museum of Art in 1913, served as its president in 1920, and established a purchasing fund for the Museum. In 1878 Wade married Ellen Garretson (1859-1917), daughter of Hiram and Ellen Howe Garretson. Upon her death in 1917, a memorial fund was established in her name to benefit charities that the Wade family supported. Jeptha Homer Wade II and Ellen Garretson Wade had three children: Jeptha Homer Wade Jr. (Jep), George Garretson (Garretson or Garry), and Helen Wade Green. Jeptha Homer Wade II died at Mill Pond Plantation, Thomasville, Georgia, in March 1926.

Jeptha Homer Wade, Jr. (1879-1936) was born in Cleveland on September 20, 1879. He attended the University School and obtained a PhD. from Yale in 1902. He joined the military during World War I, enlisting in 1917 and serving until 1919 with the U.S.S. Ambulance Service. In the business world he was Director of the Union Trust Co. and the Wade Realty Co. He was also a member of several clubs including the Delta Psy fraternity, Union Club, Tavern Club, Chagrin Valley Hunt Club, Pepper Pike Club, Winous Point Shooting Club, New York Yacht Club and Yale Club. He was married to Alice Mary Reynolds who passed away in 1919. He remarried to Elizabeth Firth. Jeptha Homer Wade, Jr. died December 3, 1936 in Thomasville, Georgia.

George Garretson Wade (1882-1957) was born on August 29, 1882. He, like his brother, attended University School and obtained a PhD from Yale University in 1904. George Garretson Wade married Irene Love on June 2, 1909 in St. Louis, Missouri. She was the daughter of John E. Love and Irene Hanna Love (more background on the Love Family and other related families is contained in Series I). They had three children: Ellen, (Mrs. Austin B. Chinn) Irene Elizabeth (Elizabeth) (Mrs. Ellery Sedgwick, Jr.), and Jeptha Homer Wade III. George Garretson Wade served with the Red Cross during World War I and had many business activities and interests throughout his life. He was President of the Wade Realty Co, Vice President of the Ohio Chemical & Mfg. Co., and served as director of the Guardian Trust Co., Cleveland Railway Co., Columbia Steamship Co., Cleveland Stone Co., and Montreal Mining Co. He also had philanthrropic interests which included the Children's Aid Society, Children's Fresh Air Camp & Hospital, Cleveland Protestant Orphan Asylum, Cleveland Museum of Natural History, and the Lake View Cemetery Association. Like his brother, he also enjoyed hunting and fishing and was a member of various clubs including the Union, Tavern, Mayfield, Kirtland and Pepper Pike clubs. He also enjoyed golf. He died on June 29, 1957.

Helen Wade Greene (sister of Jeptha Wade Jr. and George Garretson Wade) was born Helen Wade in 1884. She married Edward B. Greene in 1909 and had one daughter, Helen, born in 1911.

Ellen Wade Chinn, daughter of George Garretson Wade and Irene Love Wade, was born in Cleveland, Ohio, in1910. She graduated from Hathaway Brown and went on to Vassar College. She married Dr. Austin B. Chinn and they had three children, Garretson, Ellen, and Austin B. Jr. She passed away in 2008.

Irene Elizabeth Wade Sedgwick (Elizabeth), second daughter of George Garretson and Irene Love Wade, was born in 1913 in Cleveland, Ohio. She married Ellery Sedgwick, Jr. in 1941 and they had four children: Ellery III, Irene, Walter, and Theodore. She passed away in 2013. Her husband, Ellery Sedgwick, Jr. was a securities analyst, Naval officer during World War II, and president of the Medusa Portland Cement Company. His father, Ellery Sedgwick, wasa former editor of Atlantic Monthly. Ellery Sedgwick Jr. passed away in 1991.

Jeptha Homer Wade III (1924-2008) was born December 26, 1924, the third child of George Garretson and Irene Love Wade. He graduated from Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard Law School and went on to a successful law career. He married Emily Vanderbilt and had four children: Rebecca, William, Randall, and Emily. He passed away on August 8, 2008.

Click here to view the Encyclopedia of Cleveland History entry for Jeptha Homer Wade I

Scope and Content

The Jeptha Homer Wade Family Papers, Series II, 1832-2013 and undated, consist of an account book, annual report, applications, architectural plans, bibles, booklets, a cash book, a CD, charts, correspondence, deeds, diaries, drawings, family histories, genealogies, historical accounts, inventories, an invitation, an itinerary, journal articles and clippings, journals, magazine articles and clippings, newsletters, newspaper articles and clippings, notebooks, notes, personal accounts, reports, a resolution, research notes, sketches, and a will.

This collection is of value to researchers interested in the philanthropic, social, and personal lives of the Wade family and various related family branches. Anyone interested in the lives of prominent Cleveland, Ohio, families in the late nineteenth through the early twenty-first centuries will find this collection of note.

This collection is of value to researchers interested in the Wade Family and allied/related families for genealogical purposes. Series I contains genealogies, notebooks, lineage summaries, charts, and personal recollections regarding genealogical information on the Wade family and families allied with it including the Sedgwick, Sillsbee, Everett, Garretson, and Love families. The Love family information also branches off to include research on allied families to it including Chadwick, Anderson, Kennedy, Hanna, Moore, Barry, and Shortridge.

Anyone interested in the Wade family's more personal side will want to consult Series II: Correspondence and Personal Papers. Included here are also allied families such as Sedgwick and Love. Most of the correspondence contained in Series II is between husband/wife, parents/children, or siblings and thus is built around issues involving those relationships. Topics include everyday life and happenings, updates on those away in military service, condolence letters, requests for financial assistance, and Mill Pond Plantation issues, among others.

Anyone interested in the Wades' philanthropic and personal pursuits will want to consult Series III: Subject Files. Lake View Cemetery, Jeptha H. Wade Memorial Chapel at Lake View Cemetery, Mill Pond Plantation, Valley View Farm, and the proposed Wade theological School, along with various subjects relating to the Cleveland Museum of Natural History, Wade Park, The Cleveland Museum of Art, the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo, and various personal items like wedding announcements and obituaries are some of the topics covered in the newspaper, newsletter, magazine, and journal articles and clippings in Series III.

Statement of Arrangement

Restrictions on Access

None.

The researcher should also consult MS 3292 Jeptha Homer Wade Family Papers; MS 3934 Randall Palmer Wade Travel Journals; PG 59 Jeptha Homer Wade Family Photographs; and PG 597 Jeptha Homer Wade Family Photographs, Series II.

All photographs have been removed to PG 597 Jeptha Homer Wade Family Photographs, Series II.

Indexing Terms

The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the library's online public access catalog.

Persons:

Preferred Citation

[Container ___, Folder ___ ] MS 5228 Jeptha Homer Wade Family Papers, Series II, Western Reserve Historical Society, Cleveland, Ohio

Acquisition Information

Gifts of Mrs. Ellery Sedgwick, Jr. in 1996; Randall Wade Everett, III in 1997; Windy Chinn Curtis in 2013; and Irene Sedgwick Briedis; Ellery Sedgwick, III; Walter Sedgwick; and Theodore Sedgwick in 2013 and 2015.

The processing of this collection was made possible by a gift from the G. G. Wade Charitable Trust.

Processing Information

This collection was processed as a component of The Wade Project.

The Wade Project is an initiative of The Western Reserve Historical Society, made possible through funding from Mrs. Jeptha Homer Wade III, and the George Garretson Wade Charitable Trust. Additional funding for the project has been provided by Mr. and Mrs. John Briedis, Mr. and Mrs. William Garretson Wade, and the Honorable Theodore Sedgwick, US Ambassador to Slovakia.

Processed by Hannah Kemp-Severence in 2014 and 2015.

Detailed Description of The Collection