Sex: Male.
Birth: 1817 in York Co., Pa
Death: AFT 1850
Family: Wife: Elizabeth Mundorff 1813 - 1875.
Children: Noah H Wade 1838 - 1914.
Marriage: 19 Jul 1837 Lancaster, Pennsylvania.
Parents: Husband: James Wade 1760 - 1819.
Wife: Mary Huss 1783 - 1855.
See the detailed notes under Eliza Wade as to the evidence and deductions for John and Eliza Wade being the parents of Noah.
Mary Wade is almost certainly the father of John, grandmother of Noah. Beyond this no more specifics can be found, beyond that no male Wade appearing in Pennsylvania censuses from 1790 to 1820 appears to be in the line of descent to Noah Wade.
Family tradition, supported now by DNA evidence, is that the founder of this Wade line in America was an Irishman, who killed a British tax collector in Dublin, Ireland, then fled to America. There he married a Conestoga Indian named Bright Waters.
In fact, what were called then the 'Scots-Irish' were a major population component of the early Pennsylvania colony. Thousands migrated just after 1700, and Scots-Irish settlers and traders were the first to contact and mingle with the Conestoga Indians.
They were in constant conflict with the predominate German settlers. The massacre of the last Conestoga Indians by a Scots-Irish vigilante band during the French and Indian War resulted in major protests by German church and political groups.
Wades figured in Pennsylvania history from the earliest times and in Lancaster County from 1722. Several generations of John Wade are almost the only one mentioned in earliest records:
1675: Robert Wade, an English Friend, the first member of the Society to locate on the west side of the Delaware, settled among the Swedes and Dutch on the west bank of Chester Creek at Upland, later called Chester, in 1675, and in that year William Edmundson, then on a religious visit to the American colonies, held a meeting at his house. This was the first Friends' meeting held in the Province of Pennsylvania. A meeting was probably held regularly after 1677, by which time several other Friends had arrived in the neighborhood. No doubt the First-day and mid-week meetings continued to be held at Robert Wade's house, known as Essex House, until 7 Mo. (September) 11, 1682, shortly before the coming of William Penn, when the Monthly Meeting "agreed yt a meeting shall be held for ye service & worship of god every first day at ye court house at Vpland."
1722: Anna Musser, wife of a John Wade, is mentioned in a 1722 will as receiving part of 200 acrees in Strasberg (later Lampeter) township. (f)
1771: The 1771 Property Tax List indicates a John Wade living in Lancaster Borough, Lancaster County, but landless. The entry reads: WADE, John - lab'r, no Acres, no Horses, no Cattle, no Servants; Tax - 2.0 pounds.
1780: By 1780 evidently this John Wade's economic situation had improved. This John Wade is mentioned as being from Conestoga. Taxables in Conestoga in 1780 listed: John Wade, 2 horses, 2 cows, total value £250. With the Conestoga association this is a very good candidate for an ancestor of Noah.
The 1790 census shows only one John Wade in Lancaster County, in Earl Towhsip (AIS). Another version of the census gives his residence as Elizabethtown. However his name (and those of others on the 'Elizabethtown' list) cannot be found in the census images for Earl, Elizabeth or Conestoga. Perhaps the original, available in 1908, is lost. The Elizabeth version shows the family to consist of two free white males over 16, one free white male under 16, two free white females, no other persons, and no slaves. However the other surnames on the list are not typical names associated with Conestoga or the Wade family. Therefore it seems somehow the Wades of Conestoga 'submerged' from 1780 to 1850. In any case no definite conclusion can be drawn.
The 1790 census lists three other Wades aside from John. The number of Wades holds constant at four in the 1810 and 1820 census, but then explode - reaching nine in 1830 and 1840, 15 in 1850, 20 in 1870, and 26 Heads of Household in 1910. However the relationship of any of these Wades to Noah is not possible to determine,
1790+: Information on the Internet provides details of a John Wade, 1768-1816, lived in Lancaster Co., Pa. He only named his two sons (John and Christian) in his will. The son John had a son Daniel, who moved to Illinois; there is no record of the any other children. There were 6 girls. One of the girls married a Shaub, who's family owned a clothing or shoe store in Lancaster, Pa. Shaub was a common name in the Conestoga area. This could not be an ancestor of Noah since he was married in 1819 and died in 1829 - therefore he did not have children early enough to be a grandfather to Noah, and died too early to have fathered Noah himself.
Change: 15 Oct 2006 Time: 01:00:00.