Clackamas-Multnomah-Umatilla County OR Archives Biographies.....Wait, Charles Nicholas February 10, 1856 - ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/or/orfiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Ila Wakley iwakley@msn.com October 23, 2009, 5:33 pm Source: History of the Columbia River Valley From The Dalles to the Sea, Vol. III, Published 1928, Pages 83-86 Author: The S. J. Clarke Publishing Company Ably following in the professional footsteps of his father, Charles Nicholas Wait established his position among the leading attorneys of Canby. He was formerly postmaster here, and has also filled other public offices of trust and responsibility. He is a product of Oregon and bears a name which has long been an honored one in this part of the stake. The family is of English origin and was established in New England in 1680. Charles N. Wait was born February 10, 1856, in Oregon City, a son of Aaron E. Wait, who was a native of Franklin county, Massachusetts, born December 26, 1813, and came of Revolutionary stock. His great-grandfather, Benjamin Wait, was born in Connecticut and fought in the French and Indian wars. John, a son of Benjamin Wait, enlisted in the Continental army, joining a company commanded by Captain Henry Stiles, and was later a sergeant under Captain Seth Murray. Joel, a son of John Wait, was a private under Captain Graves and later served in the company of which his father was a sergeant. Aaron Wait, the father of Aaron E. Wait, was killed in the War of 1812. He married Sarah Morton, a daughter of Solomon Morton, and Aaron E. Wait was the youngest of their four children. Shortly after he was born his father died and the mother remarried. At that time Aaron E. Wait was taken to his grandfather's home, in which he remained until he reached the age of four years, when he went to live with an uncle, with whom he resided until he was a youth of fourteen. Going to Hatfield, Massachusetts, Aaron E. Wait was apprenticed to a broommaker, for whom he worked for four years, and during that time picked up an education. Afterward he continued his studies while engaged in teaching at Eramus Hall at Flatbush, Long Island. In 1837, when he was twenty-four, he went to Michigan and began reading law in Centerville. In 1842 he was admitted to the bar and later accepted the appointment of secretary to Governor J. S. Barry of Michigan. Mr. Wait's reason for coming to Oregon is directly traceable to his friendship for Judge Columbia Lancaster, a native of Connecticut and ten years his senior. As a young man Judge Lancaster had read law in the office of Elisha Whittlesey in Ohio and when he decided to go to Michigan, Mr. Whittlesey gave him a letter to Lewis Cass, who was then governor of the Wolverine state. The last named gentleman treated Columbia Lancaster with great kindness and aided him in establishing him at Centerville as an attorney. There Aaron E. Wait became his friend and protege. Dr. Elijah White, of Lansing, Michigan, had gone to Oregon with the Methodist missionaries and after his return to Lansing was appointed sub- Indian agent for Oregon, with a salary of seven hundred and fifty dollars a year and a wide latitude of authority. Dr. White at once started on a lecturing tour, taking in numerous churches and putting notices in local papers announcing that he was going to Oregon and asking prospective emigrants to get in touch with him. By May 14 he had enlisted one hundred and twelve persons, fifty-two of whom were men able to stand guard, which in those days meant a man of eighteen or over. The emigrants assembled at Elm Grove, near Eminence, Missouri. Among the number were Mr. and Mrs. Columbia Lancaster, Meldrum Crawford, L. W. Hastings, A. L. Lovejoy, S. W. Moss and others who became well known figures in Oregon history. Columbia Hastings, A. L. Lovejoy and L. W. Hastings were chosen members of the "scientific committee" and were intrusted with the task of making a careful record of road conditions and of everything else that might prove of value to future emigrants to the Oregon country. They had not been on the road long, under the leadership of Dr. White, when he issued an edict that all dogs in the party should be shot to prevent their going mad while crossing the plains. This led to open mutiny, resulting in the overthrow of Dr. White as captain of the wagon train and the election of Lansford W. Hastings in his place. It was during that time that Mrs. Lancaster's baby died and owing to the entreaties of his wife Mr. Lancaster abandoned the trip, making his way back to Platte City and thence to his home. The west, however, strongly appealed to him, so in the spring of 1847 he left Centerville, Michigan, accompanied by his wife and child and his fellow townsman, Aaron E. Wait. There were forty wagons in the party and Albert Davidson was chosen captain of the train. The differences of opinion prevailing in most wagon trains arose in this and the company was divided into several sections, one of which consisted of but two wagons, those of Columbia Lancaster and Aaron E. Wait, who traveled together to their destination at Oregon City, which they reached in the middle of September. Shortly afterward Mr. Lancaster became judge of what was termed the supreme court of the provisional government and through the influence of Governor Abernethy, Mr. Wait was made editor of the Oregon Spectator, one of the four papers published in the west prior to the '50s. Of the other three papers, one was published in the Sandwich islands, one at Monterey, California, and one at the new mining camp of San Francisco. In 1849 Judge Lancaster and Mr. Wait went to the California gold diggings. Judge Lancaster ran across his old-time friend and neighbor of Oregon City, Judge Peter H. Burnett, with whom he discussed the subject of entering the law business in San Francisco, which at that time was regarded merely as a mining camp, destined to be abandoned as soon as the supply of gold was exhausted; so Judge Lancaster decided to return to Oregon. He took up a donation land claim of six hundred and forty acres on the Lewis river, in what is now the state of Washington. The first government patent under the donation land act was issued to Judge Lancaster and his wife and was handed to the judge personally by T. H. Hendricks, who afterward became vice president of the United States. When it was decided to divide the Oregon country and create Washington territory, Columbia Lancaster was the first delegate to congress from the new territory. So close was the friendship between Judge Lancaster and Aaron E. Wait, that the latter named his first child Columbia Lancaster Wait and Judge Lancaster named his son Wait Lancaster. While in California, Mr. Wait engaged in mining on the American river and later gave up this claim for one on the Feather river. He found a nugget of gold valued at sixty dollars and took out as high as one hundred dollars a day in coarse dust. After his return to Oregon he acted as assistant commissary general under General Joel Palmer during the Cayuse Indian war and traveled throughout the Willamette valley, visiting settlers from whom he solicited wheat, hogs, cattle and other necessary supplies to keep the volunteers in the field. He lived in Oregon City from 1847 until 1862 and then moved to Portland. One of the first bits of legal work that he did was making out the deed conveying the townsite of Portland, at a price of about ten dollars an acre, to D. H. Lownsdale, the payment being made in tanned leather. In the early days Aaron E. Wait was a member of both houses of the Oregon legislature and when Oregon attained to the dignity of statehood he became its first chief justice. Oregon's first supreme court judges were elected in 1858, just prior to the admission of the territory as a state. They were Matthew P. Deady, chief justice; and R. E. Stratton, A. E. Wait and R. P. Boise, associate justices. Before they took office Matthew P. Deady was appointed United States district judge for the district of Oregon and the vacancy on the bench caused by his resignation was filled by R. P. Prim, the choice of Governor Whitaker. Judge Wait was automatically appointed to the office of chief justice, which he resigned in 1860 to accept the nomination for congress by the Breckenridge-Lane wing of the democratic party, and Governor Whitaker appointed W. W. Page, of Portland, as his successor on the bench. For many years thereafter Judge Wait was connected with cases arising under the donation land claim act and assisted Bishop Scott in getting the bill through the legislature to incorporate the Bishop Scott Grammar and Divinity School. In 1870 Judge Wait's voice became impaired and he turned his attention to real estate activities. He had purchased a ranch near Canby in 1856 and in 1876 he established his home on the property, on which he remained until 1880, when he returned to Portland. Judge Wait was one of the foremost agriculturists of the Pacific northwest and at one time owned over one thousand acres of farming land in Washington, while his holdings in Oregon comprised more than five thousand acres. He was an exemplary representative of the Masonic order and a charter member of Multnomah Lodge, No. 1, F. & A. M., of Oregon City. On May 24, 1850, Judge Wait married Miss Mary Ann Sprenger, who was born in McConnelsville, Ohio. Her father was a native of Germany and on emigrating to the United States settled in Pennsylvania, later going to Ohio. By his first marriage Judge Wait became the father of two sons: Columbia Lancaster, who was born at Oregon City in 1854 and died in childhood; and Charles Nicholas. The mother died shortly after the birth of her second son, who was cared for by his grandparents until May 31, 1860, when his father married Catherine M. Quivey. They were the parents of three children but Anna Evelyn was the only one who attained years of maturity. She became the wife of Frank Hanford, of Seattle, a brother of Judge Cornelius Hanford. Mrs. Frank Hanford's mother died in 1888 and in 1898 Judge Wait passed away. He was an ornament to his profession and his memory is revered by all who enjoyed the privilege of his friendship. Among those with whom he was closely asso¬ciated were Dr. McLoughlin, Judge J. K. Kelly, Robert Moore, General M. M. McCarver, George Abernethy, Joseph Meek and other notable men of the state. Charles N. Wait received his early instruction at home and had finished the fifth reader and was also well advanced in arithmetic when, at the age of ten years, he became a pupil in the North school in Portland. Its principal, Professor Johnson, who later became president of the University of Oregon, was Mr. Wait's private tutor in Latin, the lessons being given in the evening. On September 6, 1870, the Bishop Scott Grammar and Divinity School was opened and on that day Mr. Wait matriculated in the institution. Among his treasured possessions is a sheet of note paper on which was written the following: "Awarded to Charles Nicholas Wait at the third annual examination of the Bishop Scott Grammar and Divinity School, June 10-11, 1873, as the second prize in scholarship, deportment and attendance. B. Wistar Morris, rector; R. W. Laing, headmaster. Portland, Oregon, July 11, 1873." This document was written by Holt C. Wilson, later a well known physician of Portland. William L. McEwen, who afterward became a clergyman of the Episcopal church, won the highest honors, although his rating of ninety-nine per cent for the entire year was no higher than Mr. Wait's, but he carried one more study and for that reason was awarded the first prize. After his graduation Mr. Wait aided in the cultivation of his father's ranch of six hundred acres near Canby and at the age of twenty-one he leased a farm, which he operated independently. In 1880 he returned to Portland and was made timekeeper for the Oregon Railroad & Navigation Company, with which he spent seven years, traveling all over the system. In 1888 he secured a position in the Portland post office, of which C. W. Roby was the executive head, the city at that time having a population of fifty-five thousand. Mr. Wait was placed in charge of the money order division but was unused to indoor work, which proved detrimental to his health, and at the end of two years he tendered his resignation, becoming deputy United States marshal under John Myers in 1890. While acting in that capacity he took a course in the law department of the University of Oregon and passed his examination in 1891, being a member of the first class admitted to the bar at Pendleton, Oregon. He was appointed assistant to J. V. Beach, city attorney of Portland, and later formed a partnership with V. K. Strode. In 1899 Mr. Wait returned to Canby to look after his father's estate, which he successfully managed, at the same time continuing his professional activities, establishing a large and remunerative clientele. For several years he cultivated about three hundred and twenty acres of land and about 1910 subdivided the farm. He sold it in small tracts and the county fairgrounds are now located on a portion of the estate. During President Wilson's first term Mr. Wait was appointed postmaster of Canby and served for nine years, retiring in 1923. Since that time he has supervised the management of his personal affairs and also transacts some legal business but does not maintain an office. He has a clear understanding of the principles of jurisprudence and his advice in regard to legal matters is sound and dependable. In 1879 Mr. Wait married Miss Lorena J. Marks, a daughter of Samuel F. and Mary Ann (Abbott) Marks, who came to Oregon about 1849, and settled on land which was afterward known as Marks prairie. Mrs. Wait passed away July 20, 1891, leaving a family of three children. The eldest, Charles E., a lapidist, who lives at Newport, Oregon, is married and has two children, Lorena and Charla. Annett, the second in order of birth, is the wife of C. L. Bates, of Santa Maria, California, and they have one child, Arline. Myrtle Wait was married to Robert J. Batty, whose home is also in Santa Maria, and they have become the parents of two children, Stella and Robert. At Seaview, Washington, Mr. Wait was married October 10, 1895, to Miss Wilhelmina Woicka, a native of Portland, Oregon, and a daughter of William and Mary A. (Linden) Woicka. The family settled in Portland in 1868 and Mr. Woicka was one of its pioneer jewelers. By his second marriage Mr. Wait has two sons: Aaron E., who is married and has two children, Charles N. and Margaret May; and George Nicholas. Mr. Wait has five grandchildren, of whom he is justly proud. At the time of the formation of the Portland Society of the Sons of the American Revolution, Mr. Wait became a member of the organization, which his father also joined at that time. The son is connected with the Canby Chamber of Commerce and manifests a deep and helpful interest in matters touching the welfare and progress of the community. He was a councilman for a number of years and became Canby's second mayor. During his administration much constructive work was accomplished and as justice of the peace, city attorney and city recorder he made an equally creditable record. When but twenty years of age he was chosen master of Warner Grange at Canby and thoroughly demonstrated his qualifications for the office, to which he was reelected for a second term. In Masonry he has attained the Royal Arch degree and is a past master of Champoeg Lodge, No. 27, F. & A. M. He is also affiliated with the Red Men and formerly belonged to the Knights of Pythias and the Benevolent Protective Order of Elks. His has been a strong and serviceable life, and public opinion bears testimony to his worth. File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/or/clackamas/bios/wait890gbs.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/orfiles/ File size: 16.3 Kb