Background
Jeptha Homer Wade, the only son of Randall P. and Anna (McGaw) Wade and grandson of Jeptha Homer Wade, was born in Cleveland, Ohio.
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Homer Jeptha Wade
Edit ProfileEducation
His formal education was in private schools and under private tutors. A scholar by nature, he profited from every means of self-education.
Career
In his nineteenth year his father died and thereafter he became intimately associated with his grandfather, one of the founders of the American commercial telegraph system and president of the Western Union after the consolidation with the Pacific lines. As a result he received an unusual training in business and in the wise use of a great estate. In his lifetime he was actively associated with many local and national industries, as well as with banking and shipping. As a director or trustee in innumerable concerns he was highly regarded for his counsel. But his great and permanent influence was as a patron of art and a benefactor of charities. Like his grandfather he was a lover of art. He was one of the incorporators of the Cleveland Museum of Art in 1913, was its first vice-president, and in 1920 became president. His first gift, in 1914, was a collection of rare lace. When the museum was opened in 1916 he and his wife gave a large collection of textiles, jewelry, and enamels. They also donated thirty-four valuable paintings from their private collection, making the stipulation that these were not to be kept as a "Wade Collection, " but were to be shown with their appropriate periods or schools - a precedent of no little importance. They gave other paintings in succeeding years. Wade also established the J. H. Wade Purchase Fund, which amounted ultimately to $1, 300, 000, and gave $200, 000 to the general endowment fund. He traveled widely and used such occasions to gather art treasures which ultimately went to the museum. He was also a trustee and generous supporter of the Cleveland Art School, the Protestant Orphan Asylum, the Western Reserve Historical Society, to which he gave a collection of rare coins and stamps, and Western Reserve University. His largest gifts, however, were made to charitable institutions, and he established the Ellen Garretson Wade Memorial Fund to aid the charities in which his wife had been specially interested. In 1926 the Chamber of Commerce voted him its medal for most distinguished service for Cleveland. He died of heart disease on his plantation at Thomasville, Georgia, in his sixty-ninth year.
Achievements
Personality
Personally a modest and retiring man he was happiest when he could wander about his plantation or an art gallery unrecognized.
Interests
Connections
On October 15, 1878, he married Ellen Garretson, daughter of Hiram and Ellen (Howe) Garretson; she died on May 21, 1917. He had three children, Jeptha Homer, George Garretson, and Helen.
