We can’t let election year go by without talking about Anna Wait, wife, mother, early settler, teacher, newspaper editor and suffragette. Anna Amelia Churchill was born March 26, 1837, in Medina County, Ohio to John and Lovina Grimmons Churchill. She was the third of seven children born to the Churchills. Elizabeth was the eldest, David was next who died at age 1, Mary Ellen was the fourth child, Lucy Lovina was fifth, Charles Adelbert was seventh, Ruth Helen who passed away at age 2, and Ruth Sophia.
According to Margaret Hill McCarter, in her 1909 book A Hundred Kansas Women wrote Anna Churchill came from aristocracy. She was a part of the Marlboro family, and among her relatives in England were the Winston, Spencer and George families.
When Anna was 20, she married Walter Scott Wait, just one year her senior. In 1858 the Waits moved to Missouri where both became teachers. In 1861 Anna gave birth to the couple’s only child, a son they named Alfred Hovey Wait.
An opinionated man enthusiastic in his beliefs of anti-slavery and Union sentiments, Walter was a target for the rebels in Missouri, and in May of 1861 he moved his wife and son to Quincy, IL where he enlisted as a private in the Fiftieth Regiment Illinois Infantry Volunteers. Being highly intelligent and competent he soon moved up the ranks. In 1862 following the Battle of Pittsburgh he was promoted to Captain for his meritorious service during that battle.
After many battles and serving with General Sherman in the Georgia campaign until after the fall of Atlanta, Walter resigned in 1864 due to poor health. He moved his family back to Ohio where he studied law and was admitted to the bar. In December of 1868, the family moved to Indiana where he practiced law until 1871 when they moved to Kansas. In March 1872, the family located to Lincoln Center where he served one year as County Attorney. In 1878 Walter was elected as a member of the Legislature from Lincoln County. The couple preempted 40 acres of government land adjoining the Lincoln townsite just south of Lincoln Elementary School. They built their home on this land, now known as the Wait Addition.
Anna Churchill Wait (Left) and her husband, Captain Walter Scott Wait, (right)were the proud owners and publishers of The Lincoln Beacon, a newspaper they purchased in 1880. For 21 years, they dedicated themselves to bringing news and information to their community, leaving a lasting legacy in local journalism. (Courtesy photos)
Understanding the man Anna chose to marry tells a lot about her own character and convictions.
In 1872 Anna taught the first school in Lincoln in a building described as 10x22 building served for a time as the Wait’s home, Captain Wait’s law office also and Anna’s 43 students.
By the fall of 1872, the stone schoolhouse had been constructed and Anna taught there for several years, as well as many other schools throughout the county, becoming very influential in teachers’ meetings and institutes, as well as on examining boards. She and Captain Wait organized the first Normal School (teacher’s school) in Lincoln County in 1877.
Due to her experience and influence in local education, Anna was often known as the Dean of Education in Lincoln County.
In 1880 Captain and Anna Wait and their son, Al, merged their resources and purchased a newspaper they called the Beacon, where each of them played a role in the production of their newspaper. For 21 years they helped mold the thoughts and ideals of the county through their causes and the philosophy of “Is it right?,” because they were cordial haters of hypocrisy and sham but ardent lovers of truth and justice.
Of all her accomplishments, the greatest was in the field of woman suffrage. In 1879, Anna, along with Emily J. Briggs and Sarah E. Lutes, established the district branch of the Equal Suffrage Association, the first such organization after the defeat of suffrage in the 1876 legislature. In 1884 a Kansas Equal Suffrage Association was formed with Anna as vice-president at large. In 1891 three Lincoln County women put their heads together and decided they would vote since the women of Kansas had municipal suffrage. Anna was the first woman to vote in Lincoln.
Anna was a leader for her gender ahead of her time.
In “Lincoln That County in Kansas” Dorothe Tarrence Homan wrote: “Anna Wait was leading the women of Lincoln County and the State of Kansas in her fight for equality in 1877. She encouraged Mrs. Sarah Goff to be the first woman doctor in Lincoln and encouraged Sarah Cole to go to medical school, When Dr. Cole returned with her degree, the Wait family gave her a corner of their land and helped her build the Cole Sanitarium just south of Lincoln Elementary School.
Walter passed away in 1900, following years of poor health. Anna continued her work for suffrage until she passed away in 1916, three years before the 19th amendment was passed in Congress. As part of her legacy, Anna was included in the 1893 publication A Woman of the Century, as well as the 1909 publication of A Hundred Kansas Women. Due to her work, Kansas was one of the first states to adopt women’s suffrage.
Next week, learn more about Sarah Cole and the Cole Sanitarium.
