Finding aid for the Jeptha Homer Wade Family Photographs

Biography of the Jeptha Home Wade Family

Although members of the Wade Family settled in America in the seventeenth century, the bulk of this collection is primarily nineteenth century material concerning three members of the Wade family whose lives impacted on the city of Cleveland, Ohio: Jeptha Homer Wade (1811-1890); his son, Randall Palmer Wade (1835-1876); and Randall's son, Jeptha Homer Wade II (1857-1926). The role of the Wade family in the corporate and cultural growth of the city of Cleveland was one of great importance.

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 1877 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.

Scope and Content

The Jeptha Homer Wade Family Photographs, ca. 1860-1919 and undated, consist of one carte de visite album, with blue velvet binding, and six folders of loose photographs and plates relating to the Wade family of Cleveland, Ohio. In addition to Wade family members, individuals of the Garretson, Howe, and Stone families are also portrayed, along with friends of the Wade family. Included are two engraving plates of Jeptha Homer Wade Jr.

The card photograph album contains 90 carte de visite photographs and measures 5.75 x 8 inches.

The 25 loose photographs measure 8 x 10 inches and smaller.

All of the photographs are black and white.

Statement of Arrangement

Restrictions on Access

None.

The researcher should also consult MS 3292 Jeptha Home Wade Family Papers; MS 5228 Jeptha Homer Wade Family Papers, Series II; MS 3934 Randall Palmer Wade Travel Journals; and 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.

Subjects:

Preferred Citation

[Container ___, Folder ___ ] PG 59 Jeptha Homer Wade Family Photographs, Western Reserve Historical Society, Cleveland, Ohio

Acquisition Information

These photographs were removed from MS 3292 Jeptha Home Wade Family Papers. Gifts of George Garretson Wade in 1964, and Jeptha H. Wade III in 1966.

Detailed Description of The Collection