Why a Wade Saddle?

[waddy]

Ha! Your blue tarp comment gave me a chuckle! I have just read all the posts on your new topic about the Wades. I'm still not totally, absolutely convinced, but obviously the good Wades must work well and have been doing so for many years. I will freely admit that most of my prejudice comes from riding swell forks all my life, and really never even seeing any of the other cowboys riding one until fairly recently. Just one of those territorial preferences, obviously. It has been sneaking up on me in the back of my mind for a long time, and I guess I will have to admit it. I'm going to build one for myself, then I will be able to directly compare. I don't think I can live long enough to put as many miles on it as I have on the many swell forks though.

[cowboygear]

My question is this....Who is credited with making and marketing the first WADE saddles and when? I dont mean slick forks. I mean WADE saddles with a big wood post horns? I have read that Hamley was the first and the Wade saddle was actually named after the fellow who ordered and used it? Obviously the wood post horn originated with mexicans saddles? True wades have really not been around in the United States all that long as I have never seen an american made saddle from the 1800s or even early 1900s with a wood post horn. Please correct me if I am wrong.

[bruce johnson]

Cowboygear,

In short - Hamleys made the second one and an improved third one. Cliff Wade was a neighbor of the Dorrances in Oregon. Cliff had a saddle that his dad brought from somewhere else. Tom Dorrance liked it, and had Hamleys copy it. He didn't like the first one they made, and had them redo the tree a couple years later. I think he said this was late 30s/early 40s as he remembered. The Wade has gone through a lot of changes since then. I don't know of anyone who is credited with making Cliff Wade's dad's original saddle.

Regarding the metal/wood horns. Wood horns were the norm in original trees. They were not always the post horns like the mexican saddles, but a more shaped horn that was prone to breakage. I think I read that Meanea (of Cheyenne roll fame) patented a metal repair horn that bolted over the broken stump and was sold as a repair horn in the 1880s. Within a few years, the metal horns were the norm, either polished and left plain or leather covered.

Anybody feel free to correct me, I am going off a conversation and memory.

Edited August 30, 2007 by bruce johnson

[D.A. Kabatoff]

Here's a couple of photos of a very early 1900's Visalia saddle, probably 25 years or more before Hamley made the Wade tree... you be the judge of what's under the leather.

Darc

[bruce johnson]

I got to look some more stuff up. On the Wade tree, a pretty good little history of it is at www.cowboyshowcase.com/wade_saddle.htm. Pretty well jibes with what I recalled from a conversation with him quite a few years ago. Interesting they wanted to call it a "Dorrance" and he wanted it called a "Cliff Wade". I didn't know Tom very well, but that fits with what a lot of people say about him.

I did find out that the Meanea repair horn was patented in the 1880s also.

Darcy, that is a cool saddle. Thanks for posting the pictures. Interesting leaves. A lot of the Visalia leaves don't have a center stem. They had a single cut line, double beveled, and the veiners radiated out of that. Someone could probably almost tell the stamper by that. Any closer idea of the age? Walker died before 1900, but they used the name stamp off and on through the years. I saw one today seat stamped with the DEWalker, and stamped with the SF mark on the cantle back along with the serial number. That seems to be pretty common. The only problem on this particular saddle, they had a shoe repair guy cut about 1-1/2" off the back of the skirts to shorten them up a few years ago.

I only have one of the Visalia catalogs, a reprint from 1938. They show a model #858. They call it the "Guadalajara" with a short post horn, so they were putting the post on the 3-B at least before that. Griff Durham could probably pin things down pretty close.

[greg gomersall]

Walt Youngman copied the tree of Cliff Wade's dads saddle for Tom Dorrence in 1939. They then improved on that design in what they refered to as a 1940 Wade. This is the tree we refer to today as the wade. The bar angles have changed but the design is basicly the same. the early wades also had a low 3" to 3 1/2" cantle on them.

Darc, by any chance do you know the serial off of the cantle back on that visalia. Greg

[D.A. Kabatoff]

Hey Greg,

I don't have a serial number off that cantle back, I saw the saddle on Ebay and saved the photos. If I remember right the guy selling it said it had been in the family since it was new and was ordered around 1912.

Darc

[greg gomersall]

Darc I was just curious as there were some things about it that made me think it might have been a little newer than that. Greg

[pella]

I agree that the visalia dont look that old...i am not an expert, but the seat jokey in one piece, the conchos (unless they are changed), even the back jockey that is sewn on the skirt, that look more modernthan beginning of 19th century, 1912? Correct me if i'm wrong...i am there to learn, i love history.

can we know you buy it or sell it on ebay? maybe we can contact him? It is an important part of the history!