Daniel H. Wallace (1821-1894) - Banker and Judge

 

Donna Carr

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

 

#12 Perlina Swetnam Osborn (1821-1912) - Arizona Pioneer

PCA Archives

Perlina Elizabeth Swetnam was born on January 21, 1821, in Lawrence County, Kentucky.  The daughter of Neri Swetnam and Mildred Cross, she was the youngest of their nine children.  As Perlina is an unusual name, she sometimes appears on the census as ‘Paulina’.

In March 25, 1841, she married John Preston Osborn, a native of Claiborne County, Tennessee.  By 1850, they were farming in Morgan County, Kentucky., and already had four children.

Around 1853, the Osborns relocated to Adams County, Iowa.  The Civil War was in full swing by 1863, when they moved to Colorado, but they had their sights set on the newly created territory of Arizona.  Early in 1864, the Osborns joined a party of emigrants traveling via Santa Fe to northern Arizona.  They arrived in Prescott on July 6, 1864, with three or four ox teams and wagons loaded with flour, ham and bacon which they sold to Prescott’s hungry miners.  With flour selling at $1 a pound and bacon at $.75 a pound, they soon had enough capital to begin their family’s new life in Arizona.

The Osborns built Osborn House, one of Prescott’s first hotels, which provided modest accommodations with a menu of pork and beans, bread and coffee.  Perlina, by now expecting her tenth child, remained in Prescott to run it while John Preston explored Del Rio and the Verde Valley and tried his hand at farming and ranching.  Unfortunately, his attempts came to naught as the local Yavapai tribesmen repeatedly raided his livestock and crops.

The Osborns’ oldest children having reached marrying age, daughter Jenettie wed Joseph Thomas Barnum in 1865, and Louisa married an up-and-coming lawyer named John Alsap on June 6, 1866. However, the alliance was short-lived as she died barely a year later.

The Osborn's son, John Jr., along with his erstwhile brother-in-law, John Alsap, moved south to the Salt River Valley in 1869, and John Sr. and Perlina joined them in January 1870, establishing a homestead at what would become McDowell and Seventh Street.

Once again, the Osborns were among the first white families to settle in a pioneer town.  John Preston, now in his sixties, became an influential citizen of the new town.  Perlina was known for her nursing skills, and the Osborns hosted many a traveling minister during Phoenix’s early years.

When John Preston Osborn died on January 19, 1900, he was buried in the A.O.U.W. Cemetery.  Around the time of Osborn's death, the street that ran along the south side of the Osborns' farm became known as Osborn Road, a tribute to this pioneer family.

Perlina passed away on December 3, 1912, at the age of 91. 

-by Donna Carr