Wallace, John T.

WALLACE

Posted By: Karon Velau (email)
Date: 6/13/2021 at 18:26:44

JOHN T. WALLACE
born Feb 23, 1847, Iowa

History of Warren County, Iowa; Containing a History of the County, Its Cities, Towns & Etc., by Union Historical Company, 1879, p.657
WALLACE, JOHN T., farmer, Jackson Township, Sec. 7; P. O. Indianola; born in Fayette county, Ind., Feb. 23, 1847; his father, Mr. John S. Wallace, removed to this county in the fall of 1848, where the subject of this sketch was raised; he married December 23, 1869, Miss Sarah S. Leonard, of Mason county, Ill., who was born in Ohio; they have two children: Rosa I. and Celestie Belle; Mr. Wallace owns a fine farm of 400 acres, unexcelled in fertility, and having natural advantages for stock-raising possessed by few farms in the county.

John T. Wallace, a farmer of Jefferson township, is a member of a prominent and early family of Warren county. He was born in Fayette county, Indiana, February 23, 1847, one of seven children of John S. and Julia (Bilby) Wallace. Three of the children are now living: John T., the subject of this sketch; Joshua W., of Orleans, Nebraska; and Jane, wife of Jesse Black, of Norwalk, this State. John S. Wallace, the father, was born in Fayette county, Indiana, in 1822. He resided there until the fall of 1848, when he came West, locating in Jefferson township, Warren county, Iowa, and at that time this region of country was a wilderness, the early settlers having been obliged to deny themselves of nearly all the comforts and of many of the necessities of life. Mr. Wallace entered 400 acres of Government land, and devoted himself to the development of his property. A public-spirited, forceful man, he interested himself in the welfare of Warren county, having been one of its first grand jurors, the first Justice of the Peace of Jefferson township, and was always found ready to assist in every way in the development of this region. An earnest Christian man, he was an active member of the Methodist Church, of which he was a Class-leader during active life, and for many years his home was the meeting place of those living in this vicinity. His death occurred in 1873. from the effects of exposure during the trying years of his early life here, at the early age of fifty-one years. The grandfather of our subject, Joshua Wallace, was born in Dover, Delaware, in 1785. He was a soldier in the war of 1812. In middle life he located in Indiana, where he engaged in farming and the sawmill business, and he lived to the age of eighty-five years. The remote ancestry of the family were natives of Scotland, and came to this country in early Colonial times.
The mother of our subject, nee Julia Bilby, was a native of Ohio, and a daughter of Stephen and Jane (Ludlow) Bilby. They were the parents of seven children, three now living. The father was a native of Pennsylvania and a blacksmith by trade. In 1830 he emigrated to Indiana, settling in the wooded wilderness, and there lived and died. His father, Richard Bilby, was a native of England, but came to this country when a boy, having been kidnaped by the master of a ship, and abandoned on arriving in America. He located in Pennsylvania, where he raised a large family, and died there at an advanced age. Mrs. Wallace is now living in Indianola. John T. Wallace, the subject of this sketch, came to Iowa in infancy, his earliest recollections being associated with Jefferson township. From that time (1848) to the present, Warren county has been his home. When twenty-one years of age he started out in life for himself, purchasing a fine team of cattle, and engaged in breaking prairie, having a plow of his own design, 300 pounds in weight, which did very superior work. He followed that occupation for two years successfully. After his marriage, Mr. Wallace engaged in farming and stockraising, and for a number of years was known as a prominent raiser of short-horn cattle. At the present time, having discontinued the cattle business, he is deeply interested in the raising of fine driving horses, going into the matter as a business enterprise, and with unusually fine facilities for the establishment of a first-class stock farm. He now owns about twenty-two head, many of them being well-bred stock. Deeply interested in the agricultural development of this region, Mr. Wallace has been an active member of the Warren County Agricultural Society for twelve years, and is now serving a sixth term as its president. It is an enterprise uniformly successful, even in years which were disastrous to other county associations. The Warren county fairs were noted as being second to none in the State. An instance of the marvelous fertility of the soil of Iowa is in a portion of the farm now owned by Mr. Wallace which was broken in 1851, and has borne a crop of grain each year from that time to the present. The 1895 crop gave a yield of seventy-five bushels of oats per acre. Mr. Wallace is well-known as one of the successful, enterprising and public-spirited men of Warren county.
In 1869 he was united in marriage with Sarah S. Le Sourd, a native of Butler county, Ohio, and one of six children of Jesse and Charity (McClung) LeSourd. Her father was born near Baltimore, Maryland in the year 1778. He was a member of the Southeastern Baltimore Maryland year 1778 Conference of the Methodist Church for many years, and his death occurred in 1866. He was respected and beloved by a large circle of friends. His wife, nee Charity McClung, was a native of Maryland, and a daughter of Samuel and Susanna McClung. The Le Sourd ancestry were natives of France, the great-grand-father, having come to this country with General LaFayette and located in Maryland. Mr. and Mrs. Wallace have three children living: Rosa J., wife of Turner Carlton, of Jackson township, this county; Celestia B., of Indianola; and LeEtta at home. Source: A Memorial and Biographical Record of Iowa, Lewis Publishing Co., Chicago, Illinois, 1896, vol.1, p.262