Jeptha Homer Wade (August 11, 1811 – August 9, 1890) was an American industrialist, philanthropist, and one of the founding members of Western Union Telegraph . Wade was born in Romulus, New York , the youngest of nine children of Jeptha and Sarah (Allen) Wade. He made the first Daguerreotypes west of New York, was a portrait painter, and moved to Adrian, Michigan , in 1840 before developing an interest in the telegraph .
16-523: In 1847, he was subcontractor for J.J. Speed and constructed a telegraph line from Detroit to Jackson, Michigan , where Wade and his son operated the telegraph office. He also connected Detroit, Michigan , to Buffalo, New York , Cleveland to Cincinnati (Cleveland and Cincinnati Telegraph Company, the Wade Line), and others. Wade moved to Cleveland, Ohio , in 1856 with his wife and only child, Randall P. Wade (1835–1876). Eventually Randall would supervise
32-477: A line from Buffalo to Detroit , Chicago and Milwaukee , and Speed moved to Detroit. Speed built the section from Detroit west. He made a sub-contract with Jeptha Wade for the construction of a line from Detroit to Jackson, the first line completed west of Buffalo in the summer of 1847. When the line reached Chicago it was organized at the Erie and Michigan Telegraph Company with Speed as President. Direct contact
48-629: A series of acquisitions and mergers. In 1861, Jeptha Wade joined forces with Benjamin Franklin Ficklin and Hiram Sibley to form the Pacific Telegraph Company . The company's formation completed the linkage between the east and west coast of the United States by telegraph . Wade became president of Western Union in 1866. A year later he resigned because of ill-health and sold his interests to Jay Gould , and William Orton succeeded to
64-546: The Panic of 1837 and turned to telegraphy to recover. In the 1840s he experimented with both visual and electric telegraphs. In Ithaca he was friends with Ezra Cornell and together they became agents for Samuel Morse 's partner Francis Ormand Jonathan Smith , who had become the agent for the Morse patent in the states of Michigan , Ohio , Indiana , Illinois , and Wisconsin . Smith contracted with Cornell and Speed in 1847 to build
80-781: The USS Wadena (SP-158) . He established the family's Mill Pond Plantation in Thomasville, Georgia , in 1906 (later divided by the family to include the Arcadia Plantation). He bequeathed to the Cleveland Museum of Natural History a large gem collection that is now part of the Jeptha Homer Wade II Gallery of Gems and Jewels. Jeptha H. Wade II was also a founder of the Cleveland Museum of Art , which houses two paintings by Jeptha Wade I. A grandchild of Jeptha Homer Wade II
96-660: The Army John McCloy in the formation of the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency under the Kennedy Administration before returning to Choate, Hall & Stewart in 1961. He was an advocate for nuclear arms control, president of the Lawyers Alliance for Nuclear Arms Control (later known as LAWS, Lawyers for World Security). He married Emily Vanderbilt, daughter of William Henry Vanderbilt III , who in 2015 added to
112-594: The age of 24. He remarried in 1837 to Susan Maranda Fleming, with whom he adopted 4 more children. All are buried in Lake View Cemetery, Cleveland. Wade's grandchildren included Jeptha Homer Wade II (1857–1926), son of Randall Palmer Wade and Anna Rebecca McGaw Wade. He worked in the banking industry, railway business, mining industry, and manufacturing after graduating from Mt. Pleasant Military Academy in Ossining, New York , and Western Reserve University . He owned
128-558: The city of Cleveland . In 1882, he donated 63 acres (250,000 m) of land east of the city for the purpose of creating Wade Park , which was named in his honor. Wade Park is Cleveland's cultural center surrounded by the Cleveland Museum of Art , the Cleveland Museum of Natural History , the Western Reserve Historical Society and the Cleveland Botanical Garden . Wade also was heavily involved with
144-452: The construction of two adjoining mansions with a shared driveway on Cleveland's Euclid Avenue , called Millionaires' Row. His grandson, Jeptha H. Wade II (1811–1890) commissioned the Cleveland firm of Hubbell & Benes to design several residences, commercial and public buildings. In 1856 Jeptha helped Hiram Sibley consolidate most of the telegraph industry by forming Western Union through
160-588: The establishment of Hathaway Brown School , a private academy for young girls and women. He also co-founded the Case School of Applied Technology , which later became part of Case Western Reserve University . In addition, Wade served as the first President of the Board of Trustees for Lake View Cemetery 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
176-575: The family's land holdings in Thomasville, Georgia, by purchasing roughly 4,000 acres (1,600 ha) of the Greenwood Plantation . The large tract of old-growth forest will be conserved for research on the ecology of longleaf yellow pine forests. Jeptha Wade has many living descendants. John James Speed John James Speed, Jr. (July 20, 1803 – June 15, 1867) was an American farmer, merchant , politician, and pioneer in telegraphy . Speed
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#1732859074649192-631: The presidency of Western Union. Jeptha was nominated by the Democratic Party for Representative of Ohio's 18th congressional district in 1864, but lost. He was an incorporator of the Cleveland Rolling Mill Company and the Citizens Savings and Loan Association (becoming its first president), became president of National Bank of Commerce, and served on the board of directors of eight railroads. Wade used his vast wealth to benefit
208-490: The rank of colonel . A Whig in politics, in 1832 he was elected to the New York State Assembly , and in 1838 he was elected a trustee of the village of Ithaca as well as Town Supervisor of the town of Ithaca. In 1843 he was elected President of the village trustees. In 1840 he was a presidential elector , and cast his ballot for William Henry Harrison and John Tyler . Speed lost his mercantile fortune in
224-505: Was Jeptha Homer Wade III (December 26, 1924 – August 8, 2008), son of George Garretson and Irene Love Wade, who was a prominent Boston attorney assisting in the formation of the federal Arms Control and Disarmament Agency , and served in the American Field Service beginning in 1944. He graduated from Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1946 and Harvard Law School in 1950. He volunteered as an assistant to retired Secretary of
240-569: Was born in Mecklenburg County, Virginia , on July 20, 1803, and his family moved to Caroline, New York , in 1807. Speed was educated in Caroline and became a farmer before relocating to Ithaca to become a merchant. In 1832 he married Anne Sophia Morrell, an aunt of Theodore L. Cuyler . He was active in the New York Militia in the 1820s and 1830s, and became commander of a regiment with
256-627: Was established between Chicago and Buffalo in January, 1849. However, the line was not well constructed and revenues were initially small. Speed and Taliferro Shaffner connected the eastern and western hemispheres with a line from Greenland , Iceland and the Faroe Islands . During the American Civil War he constructed a telegraph line from Washington, D.C. to Portland, Maine . He continued to invent, and received patents for his improvements to
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