John M. Wade

(1815-1879) Born in New York City, John Marshall Wade left his home as a youth. On the advice of Sam Houston, he came to Texas in 1835 from the Western Creek Nation in present-day Oklahoma. He joined the Texas army during the War for Independence. At the Battle of San Jacinto, April 21, 1836, he was among the men detailed to fire the "Twin Sisters," a pair of cannons given to the Texas forces by citizens of Cincinnati, Ohio.

After the war, he served briefly as assistant secretary to the Senate of the Republic of Texas. A printer by profession, Wade became a typesetter for Gail Borden's newspaper, the "Telegraph and Texas Register." In 1838 he moved to the community of Montgomery and was appointed deputy surveyor for Montgomery county.

He participated in the Somervell Expedition against Mexico in 1842. In 1845 he founded a weekly paper, the "Montgomery Patriot," which he later transferred to Huntsville. Returning to Montgomery in 1854, he again became deputy surveyor. He served in the Confederate army during the Civil War (1861-65).

From his marriage to Ruth Boston and his later marriage to Virginia Tinsley, Wade had five children. He spent his last years at the home of a daughter in Austin, where he died and was buried in 1879.