My Genealogy Hound

CHARLES H. WAIT, proprietor of Wait’s Hotel, Bloomington; was born in Windsor, Vt., May 10, 1820, and is the son of Capt. Joseph Wait, whose father was Gen. Marmaduke Wait. The subject of this sketch was brought up on the farm and graduated from the district school when very young, namely, when 8 years old; he then entered the hotel business, as hostler and bartender, in Perkinsville, Vt.; then was engaged in driving a four-horse team from Whitehall, N. Y., to Claremont, N. H., over the Green Mountains, hauling flour, principally. In 1840, he came West and located at Chicago, then a small town; he became general manager of a stage-route—one of the first at Chicago; in 1842, he went to New Orleans, and was engaged in managing an omnibus-line; thence to Vincennes, Ind., and in charge of an omnibus-line running from Louisville, Ky., to Vincennes, Ind. He married at Washington, Ind., in 1844, to Elizabeth Lucas. In 1845, he commenced farming in Davis Co.. Ind., and farmed until 1853. He commenced farming a poor man, but, with good management and hard work, he was very successful. From farming, he went to Washington, Ind., and purchased an important hotel, of which he remained proprietor from 1853 to 1855. He then went to St. Louis and was engaged in the livery and sale stable business, doing a very extensive business and furnished many horses for the Government. He was Government Inspector during the first year of the war. In 1865, he came to Bloomington and married Mrs. M. C. Burch. He was for about two years in the mercantile business; with this exception, he has been engaged, during his residence in Bloomington, in the hotel business, and keeps one of the most home-like and pleasant hotels in the city.