13 James Wade at Ogdensburg (1851–1868) James and Louisa married in their early twenties, about 1842, and had their first son, James Augustus Wade, in 1843. They moved to Burlington, Vermont, with James and his infant brother Charles, born the previous autumn. In Burlington they lived as boarders in the household of the Hall family but decided to relocate once more in April 1851 to Ogdensburg, New York, on the shores of the St. Lawrence River. The waterway provided direct access to Lake Ontario and the Great Lakes further west, whose favored cities: Buffalo, Detroit, and Chicago, were rapidly transforming from flimsy frontier settlements into young cities. Seizure of indigenous lands and forced migration in the Midwest reallocated fertile acreage to white settlers. The expanding grain market centered around the Great Lakes, with connections to the Midwest, appeared to have solid benefits. James selected this region as his place of business, avoiding chances of competition in the Hudson Valley in order to control his own industry as it was being founded. From offices 3 and 4 of the Northern Railroad Passenger Depot, Wade managed orders for the warehouse of S. Robinson & Son, who in 1857 began advertising “25,000 bushels of Western Mixed Corn” and Midwestern flour varieties of white winter wheat: “Double Extra, Extra Fancy and Superfine.” 18 The Robinsons, dealers of corn and flour, located themselves near the railroad strategically to load cars full of their supplies. After 1859, Wade appears to have engaged in business on his own footing, and no longer listed himself in connection with the Robinsons (Figure 3). In 1860 the family hovered between the middle and upper class. James’s personal estate was valued at $15,000, yet his first son worked as a domestic in someone else’s residence at 17 years old, an unusual occupation for the son of an aspiring gentleman. The smaller siblings, Ralph V., age 8, Charles H., age 5, and Harriet L., age 3, were under the care of their mother and two Irish servants.
