BIO: Frank T. WALLACE, Centre County, PA

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Commemorative Biographical Record of Central Pennsylvania: Including 
the Counties of Centre, Clearfield, Jefferson and Clarion: Containing 
Biographical Sketches of Prominent and Representative Citizens, Etc. 
Chicago: J. H. Beers, 1898.
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380  COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

  FRANK T. WALLACE.  To a student of human nature, there is nothing of 
greater interest than to examine into the life of a self-made man, and 
to analyze the principles by which he has been governed, the methods he 
has pursued, to know what means he has employed for advancement, and to 
study the plans which have given him prominence, enabling him to pass 
on the highway of life many who have had a more advantageous start.  
Our subject has worked his own way upward from a humble beginning until 
to-day he is at the head of one of the important industries of Central 
City, Boggs township, Centre county - proprietor of a large brick 
manufactory.
  Mr. Wallace was born at Toluca, Mexico, May 31, 1836; and is a son of 
Louis and Maria (Carmonia) Wallace, natives of Spain and Toluca, 
respectively.  In the latter place they met and married, and there 
spent their remaining days, the father dying in 1846, at the age of 
forty-five years.  He was a drover and weaver by occupation, and both 
were devout members of the Catholic Church.  In their family were four 
children: Rosa, Philip, Donaciano and Frank T.  The paternal 
grandparents of our subject were both natives of Spain, while the 
maternal grandparents were born in Mexico of Spanish extraction.
  At the age of thirteen years Frank T. Wallace started out to fight 
life's battles alone.  He came to the United States, and from 1848 
until 1850 engaged in farming at Penn's Valley, Penn.  He then served 
an apprenticeship to the brick-making business in the same place, and 
at the end of two years went to the western part of the State, where he 
was thus employed some three years.  Returning to Centre county, he 
located at Bellefonte, where he contracted in the manufacture of brick 
until 1861, in which year he laid aside personal interests and enlisted 
for three years in Company F, Second Penn. Cav., under Capt. P. B. 
Wilson, of Bellefonte.  The regiment was organized at Harrisburg, 
Penn., and sent to Washington, D.C., where our subject remained until 
honorably discharged December 25, 1863.  He re-enlisted, however, in 
the same company and regiment, and remained in the service until 
hostilities had ceased.  He was wounded in the head and face, which 
caused confinement in the hospital for two weeks, and the loss of his 
left eye.  On August 16, 1864, at Deep Bottom, he was taken prisoner, 
and was incarcerated in Libby prison until September, when he was sent 
to Salisbury, N.C.  Three times he made his escape, once by digging a 
tunnel seventy feet long, but was twice recaptured.  Finally, on 
February 11, 1865, he succeeded in gaining his freedom, and reported at 
headquarters at Knoxville, Tenn., where he received transportation home 
and was given a thirty-five days' furlough, but was soon afterward 
discharged.
  At Bellefonte, Penn., February 2, 1858, by Rev. James Linn, a 
Presbyterian clergyman, Mr. Wallace was married to Miss Lucy C. Clyde, 
who was born at Boalsburg, Centre county, March 29, 1838, and thirteen 
children were born to them: William F., Tyrone, a railroad man; Robert 
B., Frank and Louis, all of Central City; Mary, wife of William C. 
Pletcher, of Chartiers, Penn.; Margaret, wife of Edward Williams, of 
Hagerstown, Md.; Cora J. and Clare, deceased; Ethel, wife of Cornelius 
Blair, of Lock Haven, Penn.; and Harry R., Anna Belle, James G. and 
Winfield B., all at home.
  On his return from the war, Mr. Wallace resumed the manufacture of 
brick at Willow Bank Bellefonte, but soon afterward established his 
present plant at Central City, where he is doing a large and prosperous 
business.  He is sagacious and far-sighted, but upright and honorable 
in all his dealings, and has gained the confidence and esteem of all 
with whom he comes in contact, either in business or in a social way.  
In politics he is a pronounced Republican, while fraternally he is 
connected with the Grand Army of the Republic, the Veteran Legion, and 
the Union ex-Prisoners of War.  An earnest Christian, he is a worthy 
member of the Presbyterian Church.  In all the relations of life, 
whether public or private, he has been true to every trust reposed in 
him, and his loyalty to his adopted country has been manifested in days 
of peace as well as when following the old flag on Southern battle 
fields.