Edward Carson Waller was a realtor born in Maysville, Kentucky, on Nov. 21, 1845. He was a descendant of Edmund Waller, who had come from England to Virginia in 1635. His father practiced law in Kentucky for several years, being one of the lawyers in the celebrated Dred Scott case, and afterwards practiced in Chicago. Waller received his education in the public schools of Maysville and Chicago, where his family moved in 1860. He first went to work with a cousin in a grocery store in Chicago, but in 1866 began his career in the real estate field. From that time until his death, he was active in a general real estate business and in the development of new communities. He was the first manager of the old Home Insurance Co. building, which was the forerunner of the modern skyscraper in Chicago. He was the founder and secretary and treasurer of the Central Safety Deposit Co. in Chicago, and for that company promoted the building known as the Rookery, and served as its first manager and president until his death. Aside from Chicago realty, he promoted an 80-acre suburban home division in River Forest known as North Woods.

Besides his interest in real estate, he made a study of reforestation and replanted hundreds of acres of his own land in the Charlevoix district of Michigan with pine trees.

He died in River Forest on January 13, 1931.