Samuel Wait was born in Washington, New York, December 19th, 1789. He was baptized in Vermont, March 12, 1809, and ordained at Sharon Church, Norfolk Conty, Massachusetts, June 3, 1818. Feeling the need of the best possible preparation for the work to which he had committed his life, he attended to Columbian College, now George Washington University, in Washington, D.C. Although he pursued his course at Columbian College, that institution was not empowered to confer degrees, so he received his degree from Watersville, Maine. For a time he was a tutor in Columbian College. He then came to North Carolina in February 1827, on a collecting tour for the college. While in New Bern, he made such a favorable impression on the Baptists of the place that they called him to be their pastor, and he assumed pastoral charge of the church in November 1827.

Soon after settling in New Bern, Wait began to labor for two things: the organizing of a convention and the founding of a Baptist newspaper. He saw both of these things accomplished and was the moving spirit in laying the foundation of their success. He was the first Corresponding Secretary of the Baptist State Convention of North Carolina. While traveling over the state in the interest of missions, he solicited and received subscriptions for a Baptist newspaper, which he regarded as a necessity for the success of the denomination. Thus he prepared the way for the Biblical Recorder, which a little later began to be published.

In 1832, the Baptists, realizing the necessity for a school where preachers might be educated, decided to establish a Manual Labor School at Wake Forest, and chose Wait as principal of the school. He accepted the trust, and from 1833 to 1846, Wait was president of this institution. He retired from the presidency in 1846 and was pastor of a church in Yanceyville until 1851, when he became president of Oxford Female College. In 1856, he retired from that position and spent the remainder of his life in the home of his only living child, Ann Eliza Wait Brewer, at Wake Forest College.

Sarah (Sally) Conant Merriam Wait was born August 31, 1794, in Brandon, Rutland County, Vermont. She was born into a merchant family of means and her early years were deeply influenced by the Second Great Awakening (1813-1831) and religious revivals taking place in New England. Sarah is said to have experienced her own spiritual conversion in 1813, at age 19. In 1818, Sally married Samuel Wait and the two were committed to a common religious mission, "to spread the gospel and educate young men for the ministry." Sally put a lot of thought the couple's calling as they considered missions to Burma, India, and the American West. Early in their marriage, Samuel felt called to leave the northeast to seek religious education and to minister in the South, leaving Sally in New England.

Finally in 1827, Sally joined Samuel in North Carolina, a move that caused her great concern as she considered it a place of "ignorance and bigotry." Described by Mary Tribble as "a fiery and resourceful woman whose aspirations pushed against the limits of her early 19th century woman's sphere," Sally stood alongside her husband as he participated in the formation of N.C.'s Baptist infrastructure.

Together Sally and Samuel Wait had two children: a daughter, Ann Eliza Wait Brewer (1826-1900), later married to John Brewer, and a son, William Carey Wait (1829-1831). Samuel (died 1867) and Sarah Merriam Wait (died 1871) are both buried in Wake Forest Cemetery in Wake Forest, N.C.

Sources:

• For more information on Samuel Wait, see A History of the Tar River Baptist Association, 1830-1921. by Thomas J. Taylor, page 32.
• Tribble, Mary. "The Waits, Women and Slavery," To Stand With and for Humanity: Essays from the Wake Forest University Slavery, Race and Memory Project (2020). Available at https://srmp.wfu.edu/to-stand-with-and-for-humanity/
• Tribble, Mary. "Pious Ambitions: Sally Merriam Wait's Great Awakening, 1813-1831," graduate thesis (2019). Available at Electronic Theses and Dissertations.