He was a judge and state senator in Ohio before serving sixteen years as Chief Justice of the Montana Territorial Supreme Court.
Wade was admitted to the bar in 1857, and in 1860 he was elected probate judge of Ashtabula County, a position he held for seven years.
Wade authored roughly thirty percent of the court’s output during its 25-year history, writing 192 majority opinions, along with fourteen concurrences and dissents.
Territorial Supreme Court justices also served as trial judges until 1886, and in this capacity Wade sentenced a reported 500 men to prison and sent twelve to the gallows.
An anecdote relates how Wade, trying to rid Friday of its nickname of the "hangman’s day," sentenced a murderer to be hanged on a Thursday instead.
These were reported to the Montana Legislature in 1892, though no action was taken at first due to political reasons as well as concerns of uncertainty and inconsistency inherent in codes.