Frederick Rhinaldo Wedge (July 31, 1880 – March 3, 1953) was an American boxer who fought over 70 professional bouts as "Kid" Wedge; an ordained clergyman, who pastored churches in Nebraska, Wisconsin, and California for the Presbyterian, Baptist, and Congregational denominations; a Chautauqua lecturer; an author of several books, including The Fighting Parson of Barbary Coast; and an educator, who taught at Pasadena College, and high schools in Arizona and California, whose admission into the Graduate School of Education of Harvard University in January 1922,[1] and his January 1929 second marriage were both a national cause célèbre in the USA.

Wedge soon acquired a reputation as a hard drinker and tough fighter,[12] and "took delight in starting drunken brawls in Rhinelander" and other logging camps, or assaulting policemen.

[38] In November 1908 Wedge announced he would resume boxing as he could not make a living as a preacher, and that he would fight Walter Stanton of San Francisco in Omaha in early December.

[43] On Friday, September 3, 1909, Wedge preached a short sermon and sang a hymn before the fight between Dick Fitzpatrick of Chicago and Guy Buckles.

[2] A contemporary report indicates that Wedge "carried the battle to the very doors of the hidden opium dens; he ferreted out the leaders of the tong wars and slave girl rings, and left Chinatown renovated spiritually".

[67] After being hospitalized after a vicious assault by several denizens of the Barbary Coast at the corner of Pacific and Montgomery avenues, by the end of 1910 Wedge decided to return to Omaha to recuperate and to attempt to reconcile with Prudence Tracy.

[76] On September 24, 1912, Wedge was found not guilty of all charges,[77] after he explained that Rose had "attempted pugilistic tactics by insolent words and by puffing out his chest, ... he annoyed my wife when she was in poor health".

Arthur Hayes Sargent (Born May 18, 1879, in Corinth, Vermont; died August 9, 1969, in Portland, Maine),[83][84][85][86][87] pastor of the Eureka Universalist church,[88] who with some other local ministers had tried to rescue him.

[12] Consequently, in January 1917 Wedge applied for a license to organize and manage the Rhinelander Amateur Athletic Association in order to train his Sunday School boys and hold bouts in their gymnasium.

[51] By the end of November 1917, Wedge and his family moved to Rockford, Illinois, where his wife's younger sister Eunice D. Tracy (born 1874 in Ohio) lived.

[118] After being hospitalized after a severe bout of influenza in the Winter of 1917–1918, Wedge was diagnosed as having "hasty consumption" (incurable tuberculosis) and given only 2–3 months to live, with the recommendation that he move to a warmer climate.

[9] After bouts with two border army corps men in preceding months,[119][123] on January 1, 1919, Hedge fought Sergeant Tommy Murphy, the welterweight champion of the Southwestern United States,[124] who was serving with the US 5th Cavalry at Fort Bliss,.

[129] After twelve months at the university, Wedge completed his course requirements and graduated in June 1920 with a Bachelor of Arts degree[9][130] where he studied Hebrew, Greek, Latin, and the sciences.

[9][133] Wedge left Arizona to enroll in the Graduate School of Education of Harvard University on December 31, 1921, with only $10 and "rode the rails" in railroad boxcars for 2,000 miles, arriving in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on January 16, 1922.

[14] On March 13, 1922, Wedge appeared in District Court in Watertown, Massachusetts, after being arrested for public intoxication late the previous evening in Mary's lunch room, but was released without penalty as a first offender.

[138] After an investigation by Harry W. Holmes, dean of the Graduate School of Education, Wedge was exonerated as it was discovered that he had been ill with the grippe and that his intoxication was due to taking a prescribed dose of medicine that was a mixture of quinine and whiskey.

[173] Soon after his arrival in New York, Wedge's wife, Prudence, who had been diagnosed with cancer, had two major operations, and was sent to her sister Eunice's home in Freeport, Illinois, to recuperate.

[177] On Friday April 13, 1928, Wedge returned to the University of Nebraska and lectured on the Industrial Workers of the World, drawing on his fifteen months experience as a member.

[161] While eschewing the use of alcohol, in 1928 Wedge campaigned for the repeal of the Volstead Act and Prohibition arguing they were ineffective, and that training of young people to make good decisions by their parents would be more effective.

On Friday, July 14, 1933, Hugh Wedge fought Jack Howard over three rounds in an exhibition bout at the Athens Athletic Club in Oakland, California.

[180][181] By September 1935 Hugh Wedge was a successful amateur boxer with aspirations to box as a middleweight in the 1936 Summer Olympic Games in Berlin, Germany, after winning the Diamond Belt titles for simon-pures of Oregon, California, and Arizona.

[178] On August 20, 1928, Wedge, who was despondent due to the death of Prudence in May, his unemployment, and financial problems, was prevented from committing suicide in his apartment at 2261 Shattuck Avenue, Berkeley, by friends who had received his farewell letters.

[191] While studying at the University of California Summer session in 1928, Wedge met Jennie Mina Holliday, a fellow student, with whom he soon fell in love, and decided to marry[192] after she had visited him several times when he was hospitalized after his August 1928 suicide attempt.

[195] Three hours before the wedding Wedge sent a special delivery letter to Holloway: "It is better for me to remain a lonely Presbyterian minister than to marry you and break God's law.

Norris initially refused to file the paperwork for the wedding, as he claimed Wedge had lied to him about the marital status of Holloway, creating the impression that she was a widow.

[200] Wedge planned to train and manage his son, who was a promising amateur boxer, but on January 30, 1929, Hugh informed his father that he had decided not to sign a contract with him, and to remain in high school and then work in a foundry.

[200][201] Within a week of his wedding, Wedge had been committed to the psychiatric ward in the Highland Hospital in Oakland, California, for observation after admitting to an alienist that he had been obsessed with either strangling his new wife or defenestrating her during their honeymoon.

[215] By the beginning of April 1930 Wedge was listed as being an unmarried author, and living in the Union Mission,[216] a two-story frame building for indigent men,[217][218] at 126 South Marengo Avenue, Pasadena.

[216] On April 15, 1930 The Los Angeles Times announced Wedge's intention to marry Viola M. Anderson (born about 1900 in Wisconsin), a stenographer residing in Montebello, California, with her Swedish father.

[212] On Tuesday, April 4, 1933, Wedge married divorcee Matilda Trueds, a traveler and writer from Sweden, in Seattle, Washington, in a ceremony conducted by his friend, Rev.