Dr. James D. Wade
James Duncan Wade was born in New York City on March 15, 1838 (Brooklyn Daily Eagle, October 20, 1902, p. 3; The Brooklyn Citizen, October 20, 1902, p. 4), the eldest son of James M. and Eliza Ann Wade. The 1850 and 1880 U.S. censuses and the 1855 New York State census agree on about 1838 (FamilySearch). Before the war he worked for six years for Dr. Barker, “because I was too poor to resent it” (James, February 21, 1864), and he had begun to study medicine at New York University (Brooklyn Daily Eagle, October 20, 1902, p. 3; The Brooklyn Citizen, October 20, 1902, p. 4).
He first served in Company F of the 47th Regiment, New York State Militia, as fourth sergeant, mustered in on May 27, 1862, for three months at Fort McHenry, Baltimore (muster roll; regimental summary). On September 13, 1862, he enlisted at Brooklyn for three years in the 176th New York Infantry and was mustered in as a private in Company B. He was captured at Brashear City, Louisiana, on June 23, 1863, and paroled, returning to duty that August. On October 23, 1863, he was discharged at Bonnet Carré for promotion to first lieutenant of Company F in the regiment of Black soldiers then called the 16th Corps d’Afrique and later the 87th U.S. Colored Infantry (176th roster; NPS Soldiers and Sailors; James, February 21 and May 24, 1864). He commanded the company in Texas, and was still serving with it in September 1864 (James to Mother, September 3, 1864); a receipt shows him on duty there until October 25, 1864 (Receipt, October 25, 1864).
Back in Brooklyn he returned to medicine. The 1865 state census already lists him as a physician (1865 New York State census), and the Brooklyn Citizen says he graduated in 1866 (The Brooklyn Citizen, October 20, 1902, p. 4). He practised in Williamsburgh, the Eastern District, for the rest of his life, “one of the best-known practitioners of Williamsburg” (The New York Times, October 21, 1902, p. 9). He belonged to the Hanover Club and the Kings County Medical Society, and was for a time on the visiting staff of the Eastern District Hospital (Brooklyn Daily Eagle, October 20, 1902, p. 3). He was surgeon of Henry Lee Post No. 21 of the Grand Army of the Republic in 1890 (Brooklyn Daily Eagle, December 14, 1890, p. 4), and also belonged to the Royal Arcanum and the Knights of Honor (Brooklyn Daily Eagle, October 21, 1902, p. 5). On October 21, 1869, in Brooklyn, he married Harriet N. Ricker, 31, born in Massachusetts, the daughter of Oliver H. Ricker and Mary J. Roberts (New York City marriage records, on FamilySearch; the index reads “May J.”). In 1875 they lived in Ward 13, Brooklyn, with their son Henry A. and Harriet’s widowed mother, Mary J. Ricker, 75, born in New Haven; the census lists James as a doctor (1875 New York State census, on FamilySearch). In 1876 he attended his father in his last illness at his own house, 252 South Ninth Street, and signed his death certificate (Brooklyn certificate of death No. 3172). Their son, Dr. Henry A. Wade, later practised with him (The Brooklyn Citizen, October 20, 1902, p. 4).
On the night of October 19, 1902, though unwell, he answered an urgent call to the house of a patient, Charles Eaton, at 736 Wythe Avenue. He was writing a prescription at a table in an upper room “when he gasped and fell to the floor”, dead of heart failure. A few hours earlier his lifelong friend Dr. Thomas Gates Underwood had died, and the news “came as a severe shock to Dr. Wade” (Brooklyn Daily Eagle, October 20, 1902, p. 3). He was 64, and lived at 252 South Ninth Street, at the corner of Marcy Avenue. His mother, his wife and his son survived him (Brooklyn Daily Eagle, October 20, 1902, p. 3; Brooklyn Daily Eagle, October 21, 1902, p. 5). He is buried in Cypress Hills Cemetery, Brooklyn (Find a Grave).
- From James D. Wade 16
- 1862 Aug 8 Aug 10 1863 Jul 6 Sep 1 Oct 15 Oct 19 Nov 20 & 26 1864 Jan 15 Jan 17 Jan 18 Feb 21 Apr 13 May 24 Jun 26 Sep 3 Oct 7
- To James D. Wade 4
- 1863 Dec 27 (Mother) Dec 27 (Willie) 1864 Oct 4 Oct 25
- Mentioned in 9
- 1862 Jul 27 1863 Mar 13 Jun 4 Jun 12 & 13 Sep 4 Sep 21 Oct 3 Oct 22 & 25 Nov 13