WASHINGTON M. WADE. Washington M. Wade, ex-clerk and recorder of Christian County, and a prominent banker of the county, was born in Carroll County, Arkansas, January 21, 1858, and was the youngest of ten children born to the union of Joseph and Nancy (Sivley) Wade. The father was born in Warren County, Kentucky, near Bowling Green, March 4, 1814, and the mother was born in Lawrence County, Ala., in 1816. The latter was the daughter of Mr. and Rachel Sivley, and was the only one of the family to come to Missouri.
Our subject’s paternal grandparents were Joseph Wade and his wife, formerly Miss Mounts. The father of our subject came from Alabama to Greene County, Missouri, in 1840, but subsequently moved to Arkansas, where he made his home until 1861. He then moved to Rolla, Missouri, for being a strong Union man his ideas did not accord with his neighbors’, and he thought it prudent to leave. He enlisted in the army, but was rejected on account of his age. His wife took the family and located in the northeast part of Christian County, but after residing there one year, moved to Grand Prairie, in Greene County, north of Republic. In 1866 the family moved to the southwest point of Christian County, Galloway Township, near Highlandville, and there resided until the death of the father, on the 29th of January, 1888. The mother died on the 8th of March, 1883. They came from Alabama to Missouri by wagon, and the father entered land in Galloway Township. Mr. Wade was at one time a Whig, but later, or in 1856, he became a stanch Republican. He never cared for office, but gave his whole attention to farming and stockraising, at which he was unusually successful. He and Mrs. Wade were members, in good standing, of the Methodist Episcopal Church. He was made a Mason in 1833, and at the time of his death was the oldest Mason in Christian County. He was a member of Friend Lodge No. 352.
In addition to a common-school education, our subject attended Marionville College in Lawrence County, Missouri, and graduated from the same June 3, 1880. He then began teaching, following that profession in Christian and Stone Counties, teaching near Ozark up to 1886, when he was elected clerk and recorder of the county by the Republican party, but received good support from both parties. After holding this office for four years, he came to Forsyth and established the Taney County Bank, with a capital stock of $10,000. He has a deposit of $20,000, and is loaning money on personal and real estate security. The stockholders of Christian and Taney Counties are J. K. P. McHaffie. president; S. W. Baswill, vice-president; W. M. Wade, cashier; and Alice Wade, assistant cashier. The bank opened up August 17, 1891, in the Taney County Court House, and Mr. Wade was instrumental in establishing this bank. He is a self-made man, carried himself through college by his own exertions, and is one of the best business men in southwest Missouri. In politics he has always been identified with the Republican party, and has ever been interested in public affairs. Fraternally he is a Mason, a member of Friend Lodge No. 352, and has held a number of offices of the lodge, being a prominent member of the same. Mr. Wade is connected with different enterprises. He deals in real estate and owns farm and town property.
He married Miss Alice Maxwell, a native of Lawrence County, Missouri, born March 20, 1865, and daughter of William G. and N. E. Maxwell, the mother now living in Springfield. Mr. and Mrs. Wade attend the Cumber-land Presbyterian Church, of which she is a member, and both are leaders in society. Her parents came from Tennessee to this State at an early day.