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Edwin Oswald Ware, Sr. (October 29, 1853 – December 6, 1933), was a Baptist clergyman and educator who is considered to have been the principal founder of Louisiana College in Pineville, Louisiana in Rapides 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 on October 3, 2006. A full centennial ceremony, with former U.S. President George Herbert Walker Bush as the principal speaker, was held three weeks later on October 26.
Ware was born in West Berea in Powell County, Kentucky. He was educated in local schools, the University of Kentucky at Lexington, and the Southern 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 in De 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 from January 1, 1967, until December 31, 1984. A conservative Democrat, Ware, III, was known for undertaking various moral crusades, including legal action against obscenity. In 1973, he tried to ban the film The Last Picture Show from being shown in an Alexandria theater.