| Abstract: |
The Jeptha Home Wade family was a prominent nineteenth and early twentieth century Cleveland, Ohio, family with business interests
in the telegraph and railroad industries, mining, manufacturing, and banking. Jeptha Homer Wade spent his early life as an
apprentice to a tanner and as a carpenter. He next turned his interest to the emerging telegraph industry. In 1849, he organized
the Cleveland and Cincinnati Telegraph Company. In 1857, Wade moved to Cleveland as the Western Union Telegraph Company's
first general agent. His business interests were extensive in Cleveland, including the Cleveland Rolling Mill Company and
the Citizens Savings and Loan Association. Randall Palmer Wade worked with his father in the telegraph business, moving with
him to Cleveland in 1857. His business interests included the Cuyahoga Mining Company; the Citizens Savings and Loan Association;
the Cleveland Banking Company; the American Sheet and Boiler Plate Company, and the Chicago and Atchison Bridge Company. Jeptha
Homer Wade II also worked in the telegraph industry; he later joined the banking community in Cleveland. He 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, and later established
a purchasing fund for the Museum. The collection consists 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.
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