[Decuis Spear]. American jurist, the first chief justice of the United States court in the territory of Montana, and one of the authors of the Montana code, born at Andover, Ashtabula County, OH, on the 23rd of January 1835. He was the son of Charles H. Wade, the grandson of a Bunker Hill hero, and nephew of Senator Benjamin Franklin Wade. Adding to his store of knowledge at Kingsville Academy, he studied law and was admitted to the bar at Jefferson, OH, in 1857. When the first call came for troops in 1861, and President Lincoln asked for 75,000 men, Decius Wade was among the earliest to respond. He was elected first lieutenant of his company, and afterward, upon the call of Governor Tod for volunteers to defend Cincinnati, which was menaced by Kirby Smith, he was one of the famous “squirrel-hunters,” who caught up any gun that came handy, and went to the defense of their state. He had been elected probate judge of Ashtabula County in 1860, in which capacity he served seven years. In 1869 he was elected a state senator. He was appointed chief justice of Montana territory, March 17, 1871, serving until May 1887. After his retirement from the bench, Decius Wade was one of the Code Commissioners of Montana, in connection with Governor B. Platt Carpenter and Judge F. W. Cole. He was a frequent contributor to law magazines. He also wrote and published an interesting novel, entitled Clare Lincoln.
