Daniel Hendrickson Wallace was born November 3, 1821, in Beaver County, Pennsylvania. The son of Robert James Wallace and Margaret Hendrickson, he came from a large family--eight brothers and two sisters.
In 1845, he wed Mary Jane Elder and embarked upon domestic life. Career advancement came gradually, however; in 1850, he was working as a jailer in his home town of Beaver. However, by 1860, he was a banker in New Castle, Lawrence County, Pennsylvania, with personal property worth $10,000.
Although he was already successful businessman and nearly forty years old, Wallace enlisted in the 76th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry on August 28, 1861. He soon achieved the rank of lieutenant colonel and was present at the capture of Fort Pulaski, Georgia, on April 11, 1862. Shortly after, he was severely injured in a fall from a horse and was discharged as incapacitated on August 19, 1862. Thereafter, he returned home and resumed his lucrative banking practice.
Wallace and his wife Mary Jane had six children while residing in New Castle, two of whom died in early childhood. Mary Jane herself passed away in July, 1867, after which Wallace married Rebecca Cunningham, with whom he had four more children. By 1870, his personal fortune had reached $25,000.
Throughout his career, Wallace maintained contacts with fellow Republicans in Washington, D. C. and, in 1885, he accepted an appointment as receiver of the U. S. Land Office in Tucson, Arizona. Although he lost his patronage post in the next general election, he then moved to Phoenix where he practiced land law and became a judge. His widowed daughter Ada acted as his legal assistant.
Having already applied for a disability pension on the basis of his 1862 injury, Wallace joined the John Wren Owen GAR post. He died on January 14, 1894, of pneumonia and a liver abscess. Initially buried in Porter Cemetery, his remains were moved to Greenwood in 1917.
The judge’s daughter, Ada Wallace Irvin, achieved local prominence as a member of the Woman’s Relief Corps, an auxiliary to the G.A.R. When she died in 1923, she was buried in the same plot in Greenwood.
- by Donna L. Carr
No comments:
Post a Comment