Martin Joseph Wade

Martin Joseph Wade (October 20, 1861 – April 16, 1931) was a one-term Democratic U.S. Representative from Iowa's 2nd congressional district, and a U.S. District Court judge.

Born in Burlington, Vermont, Wade moved to Iowa with his parents at an early age, eventually settling on a farm in Butler County, Iowa. He attended the common schools and St. Joseph's College (later Columbia University), in Dubuque, Iowa. He graduated from the University of Iowa College of Law in 1886. He was admitted to the bar the same year and practiced in Iowa City from 1886 to 1893. He served as judge of the eighth judicial district of Iowa from 1893 to 1903. He was a lecturer at University of Iowa College of Law from 1891 to 1903 and a professor of medical jurisprudence from 1895 to 1903. He served as president of the Iowa State Bar Association in 1897 and 1898.

In 1902, while continuing to serve as a state-court judge, Wade was elected as a Democrat to U.S. House seat for Iowa's 2nd congressional district. The incumbent congressman, John N. W. Rumple, did not seek re-election for health reasons, and Wade defeated Republican attorney W.H. Hoffman. As Wade would write in autobiographical information submitted to Congress following his election, he had refused to make any campaign speeches during the race because he considered it an improper thing for a judge to do. He was a member of the Fifty-eighth Congress, serving from March 4, 1903 to March 3, 1905.

He was an unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1904 to the Fifty-ninth Congress. He was swept out of office as part of a Republican landslide, losing to Republican Albert F. Dawson in the general election.

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