Wait, William S

Born: 1789-03-05 Portland, Maine

Died: 1865-07-17 Bond County, Illinois

Alternate name: Waite

Wait obtained a public school education and as a youth worked in his father's publishing firm in Portland and in Boston, Massachusetts. He traveled widely on behalf of the firm, and during one trip in 1818, he purchased over 2,500 acres of federal land in what was to become Bond County, Illinois. Wait settled near Greenville, Illinois, in 1835 and began farming. In 1845, he served as chairman of the National Industrial Convention. Three years later the Industrial Congress nominated him as the National Reform Party's candidate for Vice President, but he declined the nomination. According to the 1850 Census, Wait owned real estate worth $20,000. He was a supporter of the Democratic Party.

William Henry Perrin, ed., History of Bond and Montgomery Counties (Chicago: O. L. Baskin, 1882), part 1, 54-56, part 2, 33-35; Solon J. Buck, ed., "Pioneer Letters of Gershom Flagg," Transactions of the Illinois State Historical Society 15 (1910):159; U.S. Census Office, Seventh Census of the United States (1850), Bond County, IL, 433.