Jeptha Homer Wade was an American industrialist, philanthropist, and one of the founding members of
Western Union TelegraphThe Western Union Company is a financial services and communications company based in the United States. Its North American headquarters is in Englewood, Colorado. Up until 2006, Western Union was the best-known U.S...
.
Born in
Romulus, New YorkRomulus is a town in Seneca County, New York, United States. The population was 2,036 at the 2000 census. The town is named after the mythical founder of Rome, Romulus, a name assigned by a clerk with an interest in the classics...
, youngest of nine children of Jeptha and Sarah (Allen) Wade. Made Daguerreotypes, was a portrait painter, moved to Adrian, Michigan, in 1840, before developing an interest in the telegraph. In 1847, he was subcontractor for J.J. Speed and constructed a telegraph line from Detroit to Jackson, Michigan. Then Detroit to Buffalo, Cleveland to Cincinnati, and others.
Wade moved to
Cleveland, OhioCleveland is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and is the county seat of Cuyahoga County, the most populous county in the state. The city is located in northeastern Ohio on the southern shore of Lake Erie, approximately west of the Pennsylvania border...
in 1856 and built a mansion on Euclid Avenue along Millionaires' Row. In the same year he helped Hiram Sibley consolidate most of the telegraph industry by forming Western Union through a series of acquisitions and mergers. In 1861, Jeptha Wade joined forces with
Benjamin Franklin FicklinBenjamin Franklin Ficklin was a graduate of the Virginia Military Institute, Class of 1849. He is famous for his help in starting the Pony Express and for establishing other stage coach and mail routes in the United States during the nineteenth century...
and
Hiram SibleyHiram Sibley , was an industrialist, entrepreneur, and philanthropist.Sibley was born in North Adams, Massachusetts, and later resided in Rochester, New York. He became interested in the work of Samuel Morse involving the telegraph.In 1840, he joined with Morse and Ezra Cornell to create a...
to form the
Pacific Telegraph CompanyIn 1860, the Pacific Telegraph Act of 1860 called for the facilitation of communication between the east and west coasts of the United States of America. Hiram Sibley of the Western Union Telegraph Company won the contract...
. With it, the final link between the east and west coast of the
United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
was made by telegraph. Wade became president of Western Union in 1866, and a year later he resigned because of ill-health, and sold his interests to Jay Gould.
He was an incorporator of the Cleveland Rolling Mill Company and the Citizens Savings and Loan Association becoming its first president, president of National Bank of Commerce, served on the board of directors of eight railroads.
Wade used his vast wealth to benefit the city of
ClevelandCleveland is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and is the county seat of Cuyahoga County, the most populous county in the state. The city is located in northeastern Ohio on the southern shore of Lake Erie, approximately west of the Pennsylvania border...
. In 1882, he donated 63 acres (254,952.2 m²) of land east of the city for the purpose of creating a park, which was named in his honor. Wade Park is Cleveland's cultural center surrounded by the
Cleveland Museum of ArtThe Cleveland Museum of Art is an art museum situated in the Wade Park District, in the University Circle neighborhood on Cleveland's east side. Internationally renowned for its substantial holdings of Asian and Egyptian art, the museum houses a diverse permanent collection of more than 43,000...
, the
Cleveland Museum of Natural HistoryThe Cleveland Museum of Natural History is a natural history museum located approximately five miles east of downtown Cleveland, Ohio in University Circle, a 550-acre concentration of educational, cultural and medical institutions...
, the
Western Reserve Historical SocietyThe Western Reserve Historical Society was founded in 1867, making it the oldest cultural institution in Northeast Ohio. WRHS is located in Cleveland, Ohio, USA.-About:...
and the
Cleveland Botanical GardenCleveland Botanical Garden, located in the University Circle neighborhood of Cleveland, Ohio, in the United States, was founded in 1930 as the Garden Center of Greater Cleveland. It was the first such organization in an American city...
.
Wade also was heavily involved with the establishment of
Hathaway Brown SchoolHathaway Brown is an all-girls private school in Shaker Heights, Ohio, founded in 1876. It is also Ohio's second oldest college preparatory school for girls. The HB experience spans the early childhood program, primary school, middle school, and upper school.-History:Founded in 1876, Hathaway...
, a private academy for young girls and women. He also co-founded the
Case School of Applied TechnologyThe Case School of Engineering is the engineering school at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio. It traces its roots to the 1880 founding of the Case School of Applied Science. The school became the Case Institute of Technology in 1947 until merging with Western Reserve University in...
, part of
Case Western Reserve UniversityCase Western Reserve University is a private research university located in Cleveland, Ohio, USA...
. In addition, Wade served as the first President of the Board of Trustees for
Lake View CemeteryLake View Cemetery is located on the east side of the City of Cleveland, Ohio, along the East Cleveland and Cleveland Heights borders. There are over 104,000 people buried at Lake View, with more than 700 burials each year. There are remaining for future development. Known locally as "Cleveland's...
on Cleveland’s east side.
Wade married Rebecca Louiza Facer in 1832, who bore his first son, Randall Palmer Wade, later that year. Rebecca Wade died November 30, 1836 at the age of 24. He re-married in 1837 to Susan Maranda Fleming, with whom they adopted 4 more children. All are buried in Lake View Cemetery, Cleveland.
Further reading
- Robert Luther Thompson, Wiring A Continent: The History of the Telegraph Industry in the United States, 1832-1866, Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1947.
- Jan Cigliano, Showplace of America: Cleveland's Euclid Avenue, 1850-1910, Kent, Ohio: Kent State University Press, 1991.
- Dictionary of American Biography, 1928. Who Was Who in American Art, 1985, Who's Who in America, 46th edition, 1990.