Whitfield Anthony Wade, born in Auraria, Lumpkin County, Georgia, was the son of a gold miner in the great gold rush of Georgia and panned for gold as a child. He was the son of Joseph Berry Wade and Sarah Odell Wade and married Mirah Elizabeth Knight on 15 Oct. 1874. They had 5 children before she was thrown by a horse on the way home from Rosewood, Upshur County, Texas from getting the mail and died as a result. Whitfield then married her sister, a widow herself, and they had an additional 7 children in Rosewood where they had a fruit orchard and Whit had a little blacksmith shop and large farm. Back during the Civil War he was too young to fight in the regular army but joined the local Lumpkin County "Home Guard" unit with his father Joseph who had asthma and also couldn't fight with a regular unit. Whit told his son Harvey Wade about sleeping out for months on end in the cold in the mountains on the Tennessee-Georgia border watching for Union troops and hog-backs (Confederate deserters), both who caused havoc on the local folks of Auraria, where their family lived. Joseph had brought his family including Whit to Texas by Ox-drawn wagon from Georgia in 1870 after selling their 1 acre homestead for $1,000 which was quite a sum at the time but was in gold-rich Auraria. Whit was injured mining gold when a water ditch caved in and he walked with a limp the remainder of his life. He was a devout Christian and active in the community. He married Mirah Elizabeth Knight (1855–1885) on 15 Oct 1874 in Upshur Co., Texas and their children were Laura H. Wade (1875–1876) Agnes Maggie Wade (1877–1938), Joseph Jefferson Wade (1879–1959) Anthoney Frank Wade (1881–1903 and Harvey Surestus Wade (1884–1980) After the death of his wife Mirah Elizabeth after a fall from a horse in Rosewood, Whitfield married her widowed sister, Area Addie E. Knight (1863–1929) and they had the following children, Chester L. Wade (1886–1906) Charles Milton Wade (1889–1970) Emily Zelma Wade (1891–1964) Ruthie Lille Wade(1897–1977) Cullis Wade (1900–1969)Preston Vernon Wade (1903–1957) and Bennie Burchell Wade(1906–1983).
Biography by Ron Wade