Wade, Justus

The following data is extracted from History of the Pacific Northwest, Oregon and Washington, 1889.

JUSTUS WADE. - This gentleman, the brother of Phares E. Wade, mentioned in these pages, was born in Virginia in 1843. He remained with his parents on the farm in Iowa, receiving a common-school education, and in 1864 crossed the plains to join his brothers in the Grande Ronde valley, arriving among them with but a five-dollar greenback, which was then worth but two dollars in these parts. He farmed three years with his brothers, and returned to Iowa with eighteen hundred dollars, thinking to remain there. But the beauties of the land of which we write could not be erased from his memory; and having, in 1868, married Miss Mary E. Connor, an old schoolmate, he boldly set out in 1871 and returned to the scenes of his former success. He engaged once more in farming and stock-raising and pursued that avocation until 1885, when he sold out the most of his stock and engaged with a brother in a general merchandise business in the town of Summerville, Oregon, of which he is the present manager. He still conducts his stock farms and raises thoroughbred cattle, and follows his real-estate interests in town. His three daughters and a son are now attaining adult life, and receive his careful supervision in education and the acquisition of accomplishments.

Mr. Wade's business methods are bold as well as successful. In 1876 he purchased of the Umatilla Indians a band of Cayuse ponies, and drove them across the plains to Nebraska, where he sold them. Also in 1885 he drove three hundred of the horses he had raised across the plains to the same point.

Source: History of the Pacific Northwest, Oregon and Washington, 1889

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