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WAITS, EDWARD WALLACE (1849-1928)

WAITS, EDWARD WALLACE, Presbyterian minister, St Andrew's Church, Chatham, 1882-88; b. Cambridge, England, 14 Dec 1849, s/o Edward Waits and Susanna Wallace; m. 1st, Mary Ann Buchan, a native of Aberdeen, Scotland, and 2nd, 1906, Nellie Grant, of Glengarry Co., Ont.; d. St Paul, Minn., 12 Oct 1928.

E. Wallace Waits received an education befitting the English elite at Jesus College, Cambridge, and the universities of Edinburgh and Berlin. He began his ministerial studies at the Free Church Theological Hall in Glasgow and completed them in Ontario. Ordained in 1873, he had charges within the Hamilton and Stratford presbyteries until the spring of 1882, when he accepted a call to St Andrew's Church, Chatham.

Waits's theology was "much more liberal than the traditional Scottish doctrine," and he accepted the St Andrew's charge "with the distinct understanding" that he would be permitted to exercise "a live ministry." He lost no time in getting a "progressive movement" underway among the 260 families and sixty-five single individuals who were then affiliated with the church. In August 1882 the congregation voted 98-2 in favor of having the first organ installed. Two months later hymns and singing were approved by a vote of 139-13. In the spring of 1883 the interior of the church was "modernized." These were the most sweeping changes to be made in the history of the church, but they would appear to have encountered little resistance. On the first anniversary of his pastorate the congregation approved a ten per cent increase in Waits's salary and took a decision to enlarge the manse.

From the start Waits preached voluntarily every second week at Black Brook (Loggieville). There was no church there, so he delivered his sermons in the schoolhouse, and because his was the only such service conducted in the village, adherents of all Protestant denominations attended. He also made a certain number of week-long ministerial visits to Burnt Church and Tabusintac, where the Presbyterian pulpits were vacant at most times from 1883 to 1888; that is, between the pastorates of the Rev. James Quinn and the Rev. James Rosborough.

Waits approached writing and public speaking with much enthusiasm. In 1882 he printed a collection of his funeral orations, the short title of which was "Our Home in Heaven." In the "Chatham Lecture Course" in 1883 he spoke on "George Stephenson, the Great Engineer." In the same year, he lectured in Tabusintac and Black Brook on "Young Men: Their Dangers and Duties." He delivered a "most learned address" at the 1884 St Andrew's Day celebrations, and a sermon which he preached on "Sabbath Observation" was published in several consecutive issues of the Chatham World. He also formed a literary society at the church to promote reading and writing.

In 1884 Waits turned down a call from a Chicago church with a $3,500 salary attached, at a time when $1,000 was good ministerial pay in New Brunswick, but he resigned in 1888, after seven years at St Andrew's, and went to Knox Church in Owen Sound, Ont. He stayed there until 1901, when a "tragedy" in his family (possibly his first wife's death) was referred to in the church minutes. He resigned a few months later and was afterwards admonished by the presbytery for unspecified "indiscretions" which were deemed to have brought "dishonour upon the ministry and upon the cause of Christ." "Grieved and humbled," he vowed "to walk with great circumspection and watchfulness in the future."

Waits was not removed from the Presbyterian ministry, but in 1902 he was seeking to be admitted to the ranks of the Congregational clergy in England. He served at Glasgow and Fraserburgh, Scotland, however, from 1902 to 1905, presumably in Presbyterian churches. He returned to North America in 1905 and took a church in Cameron, Missouri. The next fall it was reported under the headline, "Cupid Catches Aged Preacher," that the "gray haired" Mr Waits had been married in a "secret" ceremony in Omaha, Nebraska, to "his young and pretty organist, Nellie Grant." He remained in Missouri until 1909 and then had short pastorates in Illinois, Iowa, and South Dakota. In 1915 he took a church in St Paul, Minnesota, and he ministered there until his retirement in 1927. He was survived in 1928 by his second wife and four children of his marriage to Mary Ann Buchan.

Sources

[b/d] official death records [m] The Advertiser (Owen Sound, Ont.), 28 Sep 1906 / Advocate 4 Jul 1883, 30 Jul 1884, 26 Sep 1888; annual (Illinois) 1909/10; Barker; Cain research; Clark; Fraser (C and L); Presb. archives (US); St Paul (Minn.) city directories; St Paul Dispatch (Minn.) 12 Oct 1928; Walkington; World 1 Apr 1882, 11 Oct 1882, 5 Aug 1882, 11 Nov 1882, 31 Jan 1883, 30 May 1883, 24 Nov 1883, 22 Dec 1883, 29 Dec 1883, 3 Dec 1884, 9 May 1885, 13 May 1885ff, 12 Aug 1885

Remarques

Waits usually displayed a BA after his name. One biographical notice also shows an MSc, and another states that he held a BSc from the University of Berlin. This notice also indicates that a Chicago university granted him a DSc, a degree which he began to append to his name around 1890. In the necrology of the Presbyterian church he is given a PhD.


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