- Edwin O. Ware, Sr.
Edwin Oswald Ware, Sr. (
October 29 ,1853 --December 6 ,1933 ), was aBaptist clergy man andeducator who is considered to have been the principal founder ofLouisiana College inPineville, Louisiana inRapides Parish . He was both the college's financial agent, 1906-1907, and its first president, 1908-1909. Louisiana College marked its 100th year of service onOctober 3 ,2006 . A fullcentennial ceremony, with formerU.S. President George Herbert Walker Bush as the principal speaker, was held three weeks later onOctober 26 .Ware was born in West Berea in Powell County,
Kentucky . He was educated in local schools, theUniversity of Kentucky at Lexington, and theSouthern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville. He was licensed to the ministry in 1880.He moved to
Louisiana in 1888 and lived first in Cheneyville (pronounced CHAIN E VILLE) in south Rapides Parish. In 1890, he married the former Blanche Fortson of rural Keatchie inDe Soto Parish . The couple had nine children.Ware pastored Southern Baptist churches in Pineville, Alexandria, Lecompte (pronounced LEA COUNT), and Boyce, all in Rapides Parish. He was executive secretary of the Louisiana Baptist Mission Board from 1892-1906 and again from 1910-1912. He was also the mission board's general missionary from 1919 until his death.
He was president of the
Louisiana Baptist Convention in 1892, 1922, and 1923. He owned and edited the "Baptist Chronicle" from 1912-1919. The paper was the forerunner of the Baptist Message, the long-time state denominational organ. Ware offered a resolution at the Louisiana Baptist Convention in 1893 that ultimately resulted in the establishment of Louisiana College. He was the first of the institution's eight (thus far) presidents.One of Ware's grandsons, Alexandria lawyer Edwin Oswald "Ed" Ware, III (born 1927), was the Rapides Parish
district attorney fromJanuary 1 ,1967 , untilDecember 31 ,1984 . A conservative Democrat, Ware, III, was known for undertaking various moral crusades, including legal action againstobscenity . In 1973, he tried to ban the film "The Last Picture Show" from being shown in an Alexandria theater.References
"Edwin Oswald Ware," "A Dictionary of Louisiana Biography", Vol. 2 (1988), p. 825
John Pinckney Durham and John S. Ramond, "Baptist Builders in Louisiana" (1934)
Glen Lee Greene, "House Upon a Rock" (1973)
"Alexandria Daily Town Talk", January 1, 1913
http://www.thetowntalk.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061003/NEWS01/61002025
http://www.thetowntalk.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061028/NEWS01/61028007
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