PHARES E. WADE. – A native of the Old dominion, born in 1840, the subject of this sketch, at the age of fourteen, removed with his parents to Iowa and engaged in farming, remaining at home until 1863. In that year he crossed the plains to the Grande Ronde valley, where he continued his agricultural business, raising grain and stock, and is at the present for nearly a quarter of a century. This is two and a half miles east of Summerville, Oregon, and consists of twelve hundred acres of remarkably rich, level and productive land. Upon this farm he has a handsome residence, with good out-buildings and pleasant surroundings. He has large bands of cattle and horses and flocks of sheep on the surrounding ranges, and is living in health and contentment. All this prosperity has sprung from his own labor; since he had but a few dollars upon his arrival here.
In 1865 he married Miss Mary C. Myers of the Grande Ronde valley; and they have brought up five children. Mr. Wade is a lover of the hunt, and very many of the elk and deer which, in the sixties and seventies, were wont to roam the mountains that circle the Grande Ronde valley, have fallen at the crack of his rifle. On one occasion he and two companions killed seven elk within ten minutes.