Partial Obituary of Wade Elephare Cothran. Augusta Chronicle, 21 November 1899.
"After many months of suffering Capt. Wade E. Cothran died last night at 8 o'clock of Bright's disease. He had been growing worse for the last two or three days and his death was not unexpected. Upon the organization of Greenwood County he was elected judge of probate, and this office he has filled until now. Capt. Cothran was born 63 years ago in what was then a part of Abbeville County and what is now a part of Greenwood. He was a graduate of the South Carolina Citadel and at the beginning of the war he enlisted in the Seventh South Carolina volunteers and became the Captain of Company C. His remains will be interred tomorrow at Horeb Church, two or three miles below Bradley, and near his old home of Millway. Capt. Cothran was an upright citizen, a faithful officer in his county, a gallant soldier and a courteous, Christian gentleman of the old type, and the death of such men is an irreparable loss to any community."

Additional notes:
Wade entered The Citadel in 1856 at age nineteen, and was graduated in 1859. A window in the first clerestory on the North wall of the Citadel Chapel is dedicated to his memory. Following his graduation he began the study of medicine under Dr. Wardlaw in Abbeville, but discontinued his medical training to volunteer for service in the Civil War.

During his Civil War service Wade was wounded twice, finally being forced to return home after being severely injured at the battle of Maryland Heights during the attack on Harper's Ferry. Hit by a bullet which passed through both upper thighs, he was unconscious and left for dead on the battlefield. He was found by his brother-in-law, Ben Chiles, who had him attended by the surgeon. The injury caused a paralysis of his right leg from which he never fully recovered.

In the book "Hard Labor Section", by H.T. Cook, he is remembered "as a man of mark...he was one of the pillars at Horeb. He was erect in his carriage, dignified yet simple and approachable, a good citizen, a faithful servant of the people when in office, an honored son of old Abbeville, and one of the finest of its many fine characters."

Two grandchildren of Wade Elephare Cothran and Sallie Chiles Cothran have written or given oral histories of their recollections of their grandparents, which are included in "Cothran-Chiles Notes", by Samuel Alexander Cothran.

Wade Elephare Cothran and his wife, Sarah Elizabeth CHILES Cothran were the parents of thirteen children, eleven of whom lived to adulthood.
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