In season and out of season he met his engagements. His custom was to catechize at regular periods, throughout his charge, and not only the children but also the heads of families—households. This was done by announcing from the pulpit certain days in the week, to meet those of a particular district, at a place named, and so he continued from week to week until the whole congregation was visited, and instructed in a pastoral way.…A little before he breathed his last (my brother Samuel having been sent for the physician, and not yet returned), he had his other children brought to his bedside, of whom my sister and myself were the oldest present. He looked upon us all, and said, “My poor girls!” — paused, and then asked, “What is the chief end of man?” This question I answered, in the words of my catechism, “To glorify God, and enjoy him for ever.” 

Samuel was born to the William Waugh household in 1749 within the parish of Lower Marsh Creek Presbyterian Church in Adams County, Pennsylvania. Unfortunately, his mother’s name could not be determined with certainty. The pioneer settlers of the region were Scots Irish and if they attended church, it was Presbyterian. Education in preparation for college was received from a man named Dobbin who lived somewhere in the region of Gettysburg. He moved east to the College of New Jersey to begin preparation for the ministry. Languages were of particular interest for him and he excelled in learning their nuances. He found political comradery as a member of the American Whig Society, which was a debating society that followed the principles of John Locke through promoting virtue, the rights of citizens, and separation of powers. The year before he graduated he won prizes for reading Latin and Greek and for translating from English to Latin. Included among his thirty colleagues graduating with him in 1773 were, William Graham (Presbyterian minister and founder of what is currently Washington & Lee University), Hugh Hodge (the father of Princeton Seminary’s Charles Hodge), Harry Lee, Jr. ( “Light Horse Harry Lee” and father of Robert E. Lee), John Linn (childhood friend, ministerial colleague, and founding board member of Dickinson College), Presbyterian minister and educator brothers John Blair Smith and William Richmond Smith (brothers of Princeton University president Samuel Stanhope Smith and the three were sons of Robert Smith), and John Witherspoon, Jr. At commencement, Waugh demonstrated his linguistic skill in a debate using only the Latin language.

Returning to Pennsylvania, Waugh was tutored in theology by a local minister, then he was licensed to preach during the meeting of Donegal Presbytery, December 4, 1776, at the Upper West Conococheague Church in Cumberland County, Pennsylvania. The Cumberland frontier, Maryland, and northern Virginia had settlements sprinkled hither and yon with many needing worship leaders, so Waugh tested his gifts supplying remote churches by traveling on horseback into Maryland and Virginia. In Virginia he directed worship at churches in Turkey Run, Culpepper Court House, and Kittocktin. He was ordained May 1781 after more than four years preaching as a licensed missionary and he continued supplying churches as a minister.

In April 1782, he was installed pastor of the united congregations of East (or Lower) Pennsborough and Monaghan. His guaranteed annual salary was £150, and he was promised a gratuity of £75 from each of the two congregations with one paid shortly after his installation and the other when he had been minister for three years. It is unclear what constituted a gratuity, but it may have been given only if the storms didn’t come and the creeks didn’t rise to set back the local economy. By about 1783 Waugh’s church changed its name to Silver Spring Church. As often occurred for a single minister in his first church, he was attracted to one member of his flock particularly, Eliza, the daughter of David Hoge. They were married April 14, 1783. Samuel and Eliza moved into their home about the time Silver Spring Church completed its stone building to replace the rustic log meeting house in East Pennsborough.

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