Laurens-Screven-Chatham County GaArchives Biographies.....Wade, Peyton L. 1865 - living in 1913
************************************************
Copyright.  All rights reserved.
http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm
http://www.usgwarchives.net/ga/gafiles.htm
************************************************

File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Joy Fisher http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00001.html#0000031 October 19, 2004, 11:40 am

Author: William Harden
p. 789-790

   PEYTON L. WADE is one of the men of note in the state of Georgia today. As a
lawyer he has made a brilliant record, early becoming known not only as a man of
splendid attainments in his profession but as a man who was worthy in every way
to uphold the standard of honor and integrity that the family of which he is a
member had always been noted for. A man was heard to remark the other day that
one must go south in order to find the natural lawyer. If this is true, then Mr.
Wade is a fair example, for he would seem to have been gifted by nature with
those gifts of eloquence, logical reasoning and the power of persuasion that are
of so great value to the successful lawyer. Adding to natural ability a tendency
for hard work and a lasting enthusiasm, he has won from fate a fair measure of
prosperity and is now in his prime, reaping the reward of years of hard work and
close application.

   Peyton L. Wade was born in Screven county, Georgia, on January 9, 1865, the
son of Robert M. Wade and Frederica (Washburn) Wade. Screven county was the
birthplace of the father as well as of the son, and the birth date of the former
was March 4, 1840. The Wade family is an old and well-known family in Savannah
and the vicinity, and Robert Wade added luster to the name. He was educated at
the Georgia Military Institute, at Marietta, Georgia, being graduated from this
institution in 1860. He then took up his medical studies in Savannah but they
speedily came to an end, for the Civil war broke out and the young would-be
physician turned soldier to defend his beloved Southland. He enlisted in the
First Georgia Regulars, and was first lieutenant of the company. Afterwards he
served on the staff of Gen. Frank W. Capers as aide, in the Georgia militia.
After the Georgia militia were disbanded, he served in the Twenty-second Georgia
Battery Artillery as hospital steward, in charge of a field hospital. After the
evacuation of Savannah, was in the quartermaster's department for a time. He
served in Virginia in the active campaigns there at the beginning, and later, as
stated, in connection with militia and hospital department in the field. The
story of the nobility and bravery of the surgeons and doctors during the Civil
war has never been told, and probably never will be, for their heroism was like
the work of the electricians in a play, carried on behind the scenes, and so
easier forgotten than the spectacle being presented on the stage. In how many
hearts today lingers the memory of such men as Dr. Wade, who helped to render
bearable the terrible conditions that existed in the hospital camps. Lieutenant
Wade was at the battle of Bentonville, and surrendered with Jos. E. Johnson.
When there was no longer any need of his services and the war was a closed
incident, he attended the medical department of the University of Maryland at
Baltimore, from which he was graduated in 1872. He then moved to Athens,
Georgia, and entered the practice of medicine, which he continued up to a short
time before his death, which occurred in December, 1904.

   The following notice in an Athens paper was a deserved tribute and expressed
the feeling of the people among whom he lived for a quarter of a century:

   "Dr. R. M. Wade is dead, and with his passing out there is removed one of the
noblest, truest men that ever lived in Athens. We have known him for many years,
and have observed his walk among us. He had a heart pure as gold and big enough
to take in all the suffering and sorrow around him, and alleviate all the
distress and suffering that came under his notice. Unostentatious, tender and
true, he was an ornament to his profession and to society. He had been a
sufferer for some years with Bright's disease and succumbed to the ravages of
this fell destroyer on Wednesday at 6 o'clock. He and his good wife have raised
a noble family of sons and daughters, who are ornaments to society. Their loss
is great, because of the extreme tender affection each held for the other. He
was a stanch member of the Methodist church, and that institution will miss him
much. Our deepest sympathies go out to the bereaved in their great loss.”

   The wife of Dr. Wade was also a member of a very prominent family in this
region, her father being Joseph Washburn, who was president of the old Savannah
Bank for many years prior to the war of 1861, one of the best known financial
institutions in the state at that time.

   The schools of Georgia being very poor during the years that Peyton Wade was
growing up, he was educated largely by private tutors, but the objection that is
usually urged against this type of education, that is of the lack of inspiration
through contact with other children, was needless in his case, for he was one of
a large family, and soon learned the lessons of self-reliance and generosity. He
was the eldest; next in order is Eugene W., who was born in 1868 and is now
living in Galveston, Texas; Edward I., born in 1870, is a resident of San
Francisco, California; Rosalie lives in Athens, Georgia, and she was born in
1873; Robert M., Jr., who was born in 1876, also lives in Athens; Macon,
Georgia, is the home of Fred H., who was born in 1878; and the youngest,
Georgia, is in Athens; her birth occurred in 1885. After his elementary
education was practically complete, Peyton L. Wade attended the high school in
Atlanta, Georgia, for a year, and then entered the State University of Georgia,
from which he was graduated in 1886 with distinction, fifth in his class of
forty-seven. He spent the next two years in reading law with his uncle, Ulysses
P. Wade, at Sylvania, Georgia, and was admitted to the bar there in 1888, and
returned to Athens, where after practicing his profession for a year, he came to
Dublin, Georgia, where he has since remained.

   He has never cared to take an active part in politics, as do so many men of
the legal profession, for he feels that politics have often been the ruination
of a good lawyer. Mr. Wade was married on April 13, 1895, to Gussie K. Black, a
daughter of George R. Black, who was congressman from the Savannah district.
Mrs. Wade's grandfather was Edward J. Black, in his day a distinguished lawyer,
who also served in congress for several terms from the same district represented
afterwards by his son, Geo. R. Black. Mr. and Mrs. Wade have one child,
Frederica, who was born in Dublin, in 1901.


Additional Comments:
From:

A HISTORY OF SAVANNAH AND SOUTH GEORGIA
BY
WILLIAM HARDEN

VOLUME II
ILLUSTRATED
THE LEWIS PUBLISHING COMPANY
CHICAGO AND NEW YORK
1913

File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/ga/laurens/bios/gbs311wade.txt

This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/gafiles/

File size: 7.1 Kb