Year: 1878

Hon. BENJAMIN Franklin Wade, United
/ States Senator from Ohio for the three
terms beginning in 1851 and ending in
! 1869, died at his residence, at jefferson,
at halfpast 6, this morning. passing away
quietly, and with his mind unclouded up
to the very last. The readers of the
Times have already been furnished with
the narrative Of his last illness, and we
pass now to brief sketch of life whose
leading incidents are household memo
ries, both in this State and throughout
the Nation.


Mr. Wade was born OF very poor par
ents, in Feeding Hills parish. Massachus-
etts, on the 9th of October, 1900 His
father had been a soldier in the Revolu-
tion, fighting steadily from Bunker Hill
to Yorktown. His mother was the daugh-
ter of a Presbyterian clergyman, and to
her force of mind and cultured intellect
Mr.. Wade was wont mainly to attribute
whatever Of public success came to him
in life. The youngest Of ten children,
whose simple clothes and food were about
as heavy a drain as their parents could
meet, it may well be conceived that his
early advantages were not of a high or
der. His total schooling is summed up
in just seven days attendance at a dis
trict school, from which he was called 10
bear his share Of the support Of the fam
lily by farm labor From his mother,
however, in his odd moments of leisure,
he learned to read and write; and cram
ming eagerly every one of the h2lfdozen
publications that he could find about the
farm house, became soon what some one
has aptly described as that most danger
Gus OF competitors-the master of a few
books"


A. a;obfoar yaars you,r Wada datar
mined to seek his fortune in the then
unknown West, and started from home,
on foot, with but seven dollars in his
pocket. His destination was Illinois,
but, happily for the State of Ohio, and
perhaps for himself, he was checked in
his progress by great snow storm, which
brought him to a stop in Ashtabula Coun-
ty, on the Western Reserve. 1t was a
happy interposition Of Fate or Of Provi-
dence, for never were man and a con-
stituency better suited to each other than
these two thus thrown together by an
accident of weather. 1t needed Just such
a people as those of the Reserve to put
Mr.. Wade into the politics, and uphold
him there it needed just such repre-.
sentative as he to lead the van Of the
young army Of freedom. And, through
out his whole public career. whatever
the odds against him, the blows of his
political batlle-axe were like those Of
Richard of the Lion Heart crashing on
the iron gates Of Acre. But we antici.
pate.


In the midst Of the Ashtabula snow.
storm young Wade turned to wood cut
ting in the forest as a means of livelihood,
and reading at night whatever be could
get hold of. He used often to refer to
this winter with great pleasure, as being
the period of his first extended acquaint-
ance with the Bible-he read it through
from beginning to end before the lumber.
ing season was over. With the advent
of spring he abandoned his trip to Illinois,
chopping out his food with the axe until
a new winter had arrived. At this time
and the old Senator was wont to chuck
le over the recollection as the greatest
Joke Of his life-he took to school teach
ing He confessed not to have known
the multiplication table. but he was fully
competent to teach reading and writing.
and that was the main need His schol-
ars appear to have profited under him
at least there was no complaint-aud he
was himself the most industrious scholar
Of them all After two years Of school
teaching there was an inteTlude Of stock
driving to New York. and a brief period
Of work as a common laborer on the Erie
Canal-an incident to which the late Mr..
Seward often referred with much delight
In 1926 he returned to Ohio. resumed his
school teaching for year, and then com
menced the study of law together with
Giddings and Ranney. in the Office of
Hon. Elisha Whittlesey. He was admit
ted to the bar after two years study, and
waited two years more before he got his
first case-which he won. In 1885 he
was elected Prosecuting Attorney of the
County-his first step into public life,
unless a previous election as Justice Of
the Peace may be called one


From this time dates his connection
with politics, as leading member of the
Free Soil Wing of the Wing party As
such he went to the State Senate in 1887,
I but was left behind at the next election,
as being too far in advance Of his constit-
uency on questions connected with sla-
very. They soon came up to him, how
ever In lS47 he was chosen President
Judge of the District Court of that dis
trict, and in 1850 public opinion began
clearly to point him out for the United


States Senatorship soon to become vacant.
The present writer has it from the most


immediate friends of Mr.. Wade that he


has repeatedly stated with the utmost


solemnity that, neither in this Senatorial


campaign, nor in any subsequent one


did he ever ask a legislator to vote for


him, or solicit the influence Of any man


toward his election. Strange as this dec


laration may seem, il is abundantlv sus


tanned by the testimony of those who


interested themselves in his behalf


More, perhaps. than in any other iastanc,


that can be cited in our politics, it wa
. an plactIou whaliy uusauuht bv tho On,