Guide to the Waller Family Papers

David Jewett Waller was born in Wilkes Barre, PA., in 1815. After graduating from Williams College in 1834, Waller entered Princeton Theological Seminary. He graduated in 1837, and in that same year was granted licensure by the Presbytery of New Castle. He was ordained in Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania, on May 1st 1839, where he served as pastor for the next thirty-three years. Waller married Julia Ellmaker of Philadelphia in 1839. The surviving children at the time of his death in 1893 were: Rev. Dr. David Jewett Jr., Levi E. Esq., Laura P., Mrs. Charles W. Hand, and Dr. George P.

Waller was active in all levels of the Church during his life. He served as counsel in ecclesiastical trials. He attended the General Assemblies of 1844, 1853, 1861, 1865, 1866, 1867, 1876, 1886, and 1890. In 1865 he was elected a member of the Board of Foreign Missions by the General Assembly. The Synod of Philadelphia appointed him a Trustee of Lafayette College in 1849 where he served until 1879.

In 1834 he began the successful campaign to open a classical school in Bloomsburg and also instrumental in the formation of the State Normal School in Bloomsburg. From 1880 to 1881 Waller played an active role in the construction of the North and West Branch Railway, part of the Pennsylvania Railroad System, connecting Bloomsburg to the Wyoming Coal Fields. Waller was President of the Railroad from its inception until his death. Waller was also the Vice-President of the State Agricultural Society.

David Jewett Waller, Jr., was born in Bloomsburg PA., in 1846. He graduated from Lafayette College in 1870 and from Union Theological Seminary in 1874. Waller was the pastor of the Logan Square Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia and of the Orangeville, Rohasburg, and Raven Creek Churches in Columbia County until 1878 when he become principal of Bloomsburg State Normal School. In 1891 he became the State Superintendent of Public Education, and after serving an interval as head of the State Normal School in Indiana Pa. He returned to Bloomsburg State Normal School in 1906 and served as principal until 1920. He died in 1941.