TitleThe Jeptha Homer Wade family papers, 1771-1957 [microform].
Description17 rolls of microfilm.
Summary NoteSummary: Correspondence, wills, diaries, autobiographical sketches, memoranda, deeds, contracts, drawings, financial records, passport documents, land grants, notes, receipts, newspaper clippings, and scrapbooks, relating to Jeptha Homer Wade and his role in the telegraph industry in the Midwest, and to his son, Randall Palmer Wade, and grandson, Jeptha Homer Wade, Jr. Includes letters from or about Ezra Cornell, Hiram Sibley, Amos Kendall, Samuel F.B. Morse, and James A. Garfield. Personal correspondence related to members to the Wade family, including Ellen Howe Garretson Wade and Ellen Howe Garretson, is included, as is travel journals written by various family members. The Wade family interest in spiritualism, particularly that of Jeptha Homer Wade after the death of his son Randall in 1876, is well documented in his personal correspondence. A calendar of correspondence for the collection is available in the appendix to the register. Literary rights to an autobiographical sketch by Jeptha Homer Wade located on roll 3, Folder 19 is retained by J.H. Wade III.
Reproduct. NoteMicrofilm. Cleveland, Ohio : Western Reserve Historical Society, 1998. 17 microfilm reels : positive and negative ; 35 mm.
Historical NoteProminent 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.
Cum. Index NoteRegister available in library.
SubjectsAfrica -- Description and travel.
Alaska -- Description and travel.
Asia -- Description and travel.
Buckminster family.
Cleveland and Cincinnati Telegraph Company.
Europe -- Description and travel.
Garretson, Ellen M. Howe.
Garretson family.
Howe family.
McGaw family.
Mineral industries -- United States -- History.
Railroads -- United States -- History.
Spiritualism -- United States.
Stone family.
Telegraph -- United States -- History.
United States -- Description and travel.
Wade, Ellen Garretson, 1859-1917.
Wade family -- Periodicals.
Wade, Jeptha Homer, 1811-1890.
Wade, Jeptha Homer, 1857-1926.
Wade, Randall Palmer, 1835-1876.
Western Union Telegraph Company.
Other AuthorsWade, Jeptha Homer, 1811-1890.
Wade, Randall Palmer, 1835-1876.
Wade, Jeptha Homer, 1857-1926.
Wade, Ellen Garretson, 1859-1917.
Garretson, Ellen M. Howe.
Garfield, James A. (James Abram), 1831-1881.
Cornell, Ezra, 1807-1874.
Kendall, Amos, 1789-1869.
Morse, Samuel Finley Breese, 1791-1872.
Sibley, Hiram, 1807-1888.
Suppl./Special IssueHas supplement: Jeptha Homer Wade family photographs,.
Call Number/Copies 
 WRHS Research Library: MS. 3292 Microfilm Cabinet 57 Drawer 9
mq54853: Positive microfilm, microform room [status: NON-CIRCULATING]
[Record 36681]