Biography

Benjamin Franklin Wade, sometimes known as "Bluff", was born in Feeding Hills, near Springfield, Hampden County, Mass., October 27, 1800.  Brother of Edward Wade, U.S. Representative of Ohio from 1853-1861.  Moved to Ohio in 1821 where he taught school.  From 1823-1825 he studied medicine in Albany, N.Y.  He returned to Ohio where he took up law and was admitted to the bar in 1828.  He was elected prosecuting attorney of Ashtabula County 1835-1837 then member of State senate in 1837-1838, 1841-1842.  He was elected as a Whig to the United States Senate to fill the vacancy in the term commencing March 4, 1851, caused by the failure of the legislature to elect; reelected as a Republican in 1856 and 1863 and served from March 15, 1851, to March 3, 1869.  In 1868 he was an unsuccessful candidate for renomination.  During the Thirty-ninth and Fortieth Congresses he served as President pro tempore of the Senate during the impeachment trials of President Andrew Johnson.  He served as chairman on the Committee on Territories (Thirty-seventh, Thirty-eighth, and Thirty-ninth Congresses).  In 1868 he unsuccessfully ran as the Republican candidate for the vice presidential nomination.  In 1869 he resumed the practice of law in Jefferson, Ohio.  He was also appointed a government director of the Union Pacific Railroad and member of the Santo Domingo Commission in 1871.  Wade died in Jefferson, Ashtabula County, Ohio, on March 2, 1878.