OR Jacksonville, Oregon veteran bio sketch #5

John Winn

Lt. Colonel
Joined
Mar 13, 2014
Location
State of Jefferson
Here's George's brother; quite a pair methinks.

Lewis A. Wait
Co. D 2nd Colorado Cavalry

b. 1832 Canada (probably Quebec)
d. 12-4-1915 Medford, Oregon


Lewis enlisted as a private October 10, 1862 at Central City, Colorado and mustered in at Ft. Lyon, Colorado Territory, in January, 1863 at the formation of the regiment;
Present through July and August, 1863;
Sick in the hospital at Ft. Leavenworth, Kansas in September and October, 1863;
Promoted to corporal October 3, 1864;
Present through March and April, 1865;
May - August, 1865 detached in charge of a courier line at Abilene, Kansas;
Mustered out September 23, 1865 at Ft. Leavenworth, Kansas with the rest of the regiment.

The regiment was sent to the Missouri border counties to relieve Kansas troops fighting Confederate partisans and guerilla groups. Company D was involved in skirmishes in Johnson County and at Sin Hills in late April 1864 and at Pleasant Hill in August 1864. In late October 1864 they were involved in repelling Gen. Sterling Price’s Missouri expedition including the battles of Little Blue River, Big Blue River and Westport, Mine Creek, Little Osage River, and Newtonia. In December 1864 they were moved to Kansas where they were engaged in operations against Indians around Ft. Riley, Ft. Zarah, Ft. Ellsworth, and Ft. Larned until September 1865. While it cannot be said for certain if Lewis was active in all of those engagements he was reported as present except for his detail at Abilene so it seems very likely that he saw action against partisans (such as William Quantril and Cole Younger), regular Confederate troops, and Indians.

His obituary said his age at death was 83y-5m-7d (i.e. born 8-27-1832), that he was born in New York on an old English land grant that had been given to his grandfather, and said he served with the 2nd Colorado Cavalry and that after the war he served five years as an “Indian scout for the government”. It also says he came to Oregon about 1909 and lived at Watkins, Jackson County, had been in Sacred Heat hospital for three months, died December 4, 1915 and was 83 years of age.

That he was born in New York doesn’t appear to be true as he gave his place of birth as Canada on all censuses but one and his brother George gave his place of birth as Canada on all the censuses, on his enlistment records, and as Quebec in his pension application. Lewis’ obituary also claims that he was the founder of the Rocky Mountain News in Colorado and that he served in the state legislature “in the 80s.” Neither of those is true. He did, however, live for a while in the mining town of Gothic (where he was postmaster) where he founded the Gothic Record in February of 1880 and was still running it in October of 1885. In 1884 he was on a committee that elected delegates to the 1884 Gunnison district Republican convention and he had run for sheriff of Gunnison County in 1861 (but came in second) so he was a newspaper man and it appears he was involved in politics to some degree. The obituary also states that he was first cousin to both Governor Waite of Colorado and to ex-Supreme Court Justice Waite of Ohio. While I can find no record of Lewis’ parentage those two men were not related, had no Canadian connections, and apparently didn’t even know one another so that claim is also patently untrue.

The informant on Lewis’ death certificate was his son, John A. Wait, who was living in Watkins, Oregon at the time (none of the rest of the family lived locally). He reported his father’s birth place as New York state but also stated he didn’t know who his grandparents were or where they were born. I assume he was also the source for all of the incorrect information contained in Lewis’ obituary. I’m going to guess that Lewis wasn’t around much during John’s childhood and so John just didn’t have accurate information about him and that what stories he had heard were ‘enhanced’ a bit.

Lewis’ probate records show that he was in debt and that after sale of his real property there was but $15.75 to distribute to his heirs. The real property - which his son sold to cover debts - was the Squaw Lake ranch Lewis had inherited from his brother George the year before after a long-disputed legal battle with local miner Mahlon Melph Welch (see description in George Wait’s write-up).

An 1861 newspaper article reported that he had come in second in the election for sheriff.
The birth of his son John was reported in Colorado Springs February 17, 1878.
He is found on the 1880 census (enumerated June 14), b. about 1838 in Canada, living in Colorado Springs, Colorado, occupation miner, with wife Olive and two children and also on the 1880 census (enumerated June 19) in Gothic, Colorado (where brother George was also living at the time) by himself, occupation miner.
He is listed as postmaster of Gothic City, Colorado in a directory published in May 1881.
In 1883 he assisted surveyors running the Gunnison-Pitkin county line. In 1889 the line was found to be in error and was re-run giving Pitkin County a large piece of real estate. It seems some thought Lewis had favored Gunnison County but he strongly denied the accusations.
He is found on an 1885 state census in Gunnison, Colorado, married but with no wife or children listed, relation to head of household “batching”, no occupation listed.
He was reported to be mining the Mountain King claim in Gothic, Colorado in August, 1889.
He is found on the 1900 census living in Merced, California occupation prospector, alone. That census said he married in 1876.

His wife, Olive, is found on the 1900 census living in Ventura, California with the children and her mother. She is found on the 1910 census living in Los Angeles with a son and daughter. She is found on the 1920 census living in Berkeley, California with her daughter and son-in-law. She died in Solano County, California in 1923.

Thus, it seems Lewis and Olive were unofficially separated and that Lewis spent a lot of his life as a loner.

Sources:

Jackson County Genealogy Library
Mail Tribune obituary 123251
death certificate 186

The Colorado General Assembly Legislator History Database.

Colorado State Library, Colorado Historic Newspapers Collection

The Junction City Weekly Union (Junction City, Kansas) August 1, 1885 p 3
Daily Colorado Republican, September 17, 1861
Colorado Springs Gazette, February 23, 1878
Trinidad Enterprise, February 29, 1880
Colorado Daily Chieftain, October 2, 1885
Silver Standard, October 10, 1885 (V 1, No. 4)
White Pine Cone, August 22, 1884
Aspen Evening Chronicle, August 20, 1889
Rocky Mountain Sun, November 9, 1889 and November 23, 1889

Ashland Tidings September 3, 1914
settlement of lawsuit regarding his Squaw Lake ranch

Ancestry.com
probate records
probate records for brother George

Fold3
service record
 
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