From "The 1894 Review":

William F. Wait is a well-known and universally respected resident of Auburn, and a good representative of the important manufacturing interests of that city. He is the practical working member of the Nye & Wait Carpet Co., which was incorporated in 1889, with a capital stock of one hundred thousand dollars. Mr. Wait was born in the village of Hagaman's Mills, near Amsterdam, NY, in 1846. The family name in America dates back to the Colonial days in Rhode Island. William Wait, the father of William F. of this biographical notice, was a carpet-maker, and in 1847 came from Hagaman's Mills to Whitehall, where he continued on in his old business until his death in 1865, just as his son William was attaining manhood. The mother, Mary Haigh Wait, was a native of this country, but of English ancestry, her parents having emigrated from the old country to America and settled in Glenham, Dutchess Country, NY. She is still living, and is passing her declining days with her sons William F. and Horace R. Wait. She is an old lady, much respected, and is a faithful and consistent member of the Baptist church.

William F. Wait received his early education in Whitehall, and when still young, learned from his father the art of carpet-weaving. At that time only hand looms were in use. The Jacquard apparatus, however, then controlled the pattern, substantially as it does today, and the same materials were used; but the motive power was very primitive, and since then there have been great changes also in the process of yarn-spinning. In 1871, when twenty-five years of age, Mr. Wait came to Auburn, and there formed the partnership of Nye & Wait. L. W. Nye, the senior partner of the firm, had already been engaged in the same manufacture in the Barber Mills; but, as the old cotton-mill he owned had been destroyed by fire shortly previous to the advent of Mr. Wait, he was not so employed with the latter came to Auburn. The two became acquainted through the influence of mutual business friends in New York City. At once, with typical American energy, they fitted up the old mill with new power looms and machinery for spinning both the worsted and the filling; and the new factory soon gave employment to fifty work-people. From time to time its owners have enlarged the plant, increasing it from eight looms to over a hundred, with spinning facilities to correspond. Their factory is on the north side of the city, and is fitted for both steam and water power, though the river generally supplies all the power needed through the Owasco Outlet. The employees of the first have increased sevenfold in number, many of them skilled workmen; and the pay-roll is correspondingly large. They devote their attention mainly to ingrain carpets, which are sold by the H. B. Claflin Company of New York City. The original partnership continued unbroken until the centennial year, when they took into the business Mr. Nye's son, George Hyatt Nye, though without changing the firm name. Nor was there any change in this respect when the elder Mr. Nye died, nine years later, in 1885; but four years afterward the business was incorporated with G. H. Nye as President, and Mr. Wait as Vice-President and also as Manager, for, owing to his large practical knowledge, he has always been in charge of the manufacturing department.

The firm has established an enviable reputation for the fine quality of their goods and their straightforward business methods. They have every reason to be gratified with their past success, and to look forward to still greater triumphs in the future. Mr. Wait is the personification of earnest, active, and persevering industry; and his business qualities have been widely recognized by the citizens of Auburn. In 1892 he was appointed one of the Water Commissioners, and is also one of the Trustees of the Cayuga County Savings Bank.

In 1871, about the time of his coming to Auburn, Mr. Wait was married to Miss Jane R. Boyd, of the village of Whitehall, where he had passed his early years. She dies in 1876, leaving a daughter who bore her mother's name, Jennie Boyd Wait. Three years later, January 8, 1879, Mr. Wait was again married, this time to Miss Lydia Bryan, daughter of Benjamin K. Bryan, of Schaghticoke. She still graces the home; and they have one son, named for both father and mother, William Bryan Wait. In 1891 Mr. Wait built their elegant residence, at No. 211 Genesee Street, corner of Jefferson, on the site where they had already made their home for ten years. The family attended St. Peter's Episcopal Church, of which Mrs. Wait is a member, he husband also interested in parish affairs. They stand high socially, and their pleasant home is often the scene of a genuine but unostentatious hospitality.