BIO: William A. WALLACE, Clearfield County, PA
 
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From Twentieth Century History of Clearfield County, Pennsylvania,
and Representative Citizens, by Roland D. Swoope, Jr.,
Chicago: Richmond-Arnold Publishing Company, 1911, pages 490 - 497.
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  WILLIAM A. WALLACE, or Senator Wallace, as he was commonly called, came into 
public life in January, 1863, when he took his place as state senator from the 
mountain district, then composed of the counties of Blair, Cambria and 
Clearfield.  He occupied a seat in the State Senate continuously from that date 
until March, 1881.  In 1882, as the result of political contention in his 
senatorial district, he was again chosen state senator, and served as such until 
January, 1887.  Seventeen years as state senator - during one of which he 
occupied the Speaker's chair - and six years as United States senator, are the 
sum of the official life of Mr. Wallace.
  He was born at Huntingdon, Pa., November 28, 1827.  He comes of Scotch-Irish 
parentage on both sides.  The family of both his father and mother trace their 
ancestry to the north of Ireland, and among Wallaces, Hemphills, McCauleys and 
Cunninghams who came under Cromwell's orders in the sixteenth century with Sir 
Richard Wallace from Scotland to occupy the land.  His father, Robert Wallace, 
migrated from the County Tyrone in 1819.  He was an educated man, taught school 
in Mifflin county, Pa., read law there with Ephraim Banks, settled at 
Huntingdon, practiced law and married there, and thence removed to Clearfield 
county, where he died in January, 1875.
  When Senator Wallace went to Clearfield he pursued his studies as best he 
could in the schools of the place, but no opportunity was afforded him to gain 
more than a fairly good English education and the rudiments of the classics.  He 
began the study of law when a little more than sixteen years of age in his 
father's office and helped to support himself by doing clerical work in the 
offices of the prothonotary, sheriff, treasurer and commissioners of the county.  
He applied himself with great earnestness to work and study, and his employment 
in the county offices gave him a knowledge of titles and surveys which was of 
great value to him after he was admitted to the bar, as the bulk of the cases in 
that county were ejectment suits and other litigation growing out of disputed 
titles to land and lines of survey.
  During this time, however, he devoted himself to the study of law, and by hard 
work he gained a foothold.  He was painstaking, conscientious and untiring, and 
when he got a case he prepared it with a care that soon attracted attention, and 
his practice began to increase.  Many prominent lawyers then practiced at the 
Clearfield bar, among them Andrew G. Curtin, Judges Hale, Linn and the younger 
Burnside, and the class of cases he was engaged in were mostly ejectment suits 
which were of such importance that the parties to the litigation had the means 
to employ the best talent.  Attrition with strong minds and the character of the 
litigation rapidly developed his force as a lawyer and gave him a large 
practice.
  The hard work required and his close application told upon his health, so that 
in 1862 he accepted the nomination of the Democrats for the State Senate as a 
relief from the drudgery of his practice and in the hope that the change of 
scene and action might benefit him.  His opponent was the then speaker of the 
State Senate, and a recognized leader of his party.  A sharply-contested fight 
followed.  Mr. Wallace was successful mainly through the increased majority 
given him in his own county.  His election to the State Senate gave the 
Democrats a majority of one on joint ballot, and his vote made Charles R. 
Buckalew United States Senator.  For fifteen years after his first election he 
was returned to the Senate, and, notwithstanding the bitter assaults that were 
made upon his political action, at each election he ran ahead of his ticket in 
his own county.  He went to Harrisburg with merely a local reputation; but he 
soon made his name known throughout the whole state, and in a very few years it 
was known throughout the whole country.
  So rapidly did Mr. Wallace develop into a power in his party that in 1865 he 
was, without his consent, made chairman of its State Central Committee.  He 
found the Democracy split and demoralized, and at once addressed himself to the 
work of organization, in which he developed unusual tact and ability.  The 
majority against his party in 1865 and 1866 was under twenty thousand, but in 
1867 Judge Sharswood was the candidate for Supreme Court judge and Mr. Wallace 
at the head of the State Committee conducted such an adroit and noiseless 
canvass that the Republican candidate was defeated.  In 1868 the most memorable 
canvass of his career as a political manager was made.  Seymour and Blair were 
the candidates for the Presidency and Vice-Presidency against Grant and Colfax.  
The October election in Pennsylvania was the pivotal contest, and the issue was 
made and fully tested there.  He not only gave his party a splendid 
organization, but good heart, and brought it to the polls in such excellent 
working condition that the Democratic candidate, C. E. Boyle, was defeated by 
less than ten thousand votes in the October election.  A change of less than one 
per cent would have reversed the decision.  Even with the prestige of Grant's 
name and popularity his majority was less than twenty-nine thousand at the 
Presidential election.  The contest that year in Pennsylvania was one of the 
bitterest ever known in the history of the politics of the state and the 
Democratic party under the leadership of Mr. Wallace was in better condition 
than for many years before or perhaps since that time.
  His career in the State Senate was that of a leader.  For almost the whole of 
his term of service he occupied prominent positions upon the important 
committees of finance, judiciary and apportionment, and his learning as a lawyer 
and his force as a business man, gave him great opportunities of serving the 
people in a non-partisan way, and of shaping judicious legislation.  His 
personal record there was above reproach, and his influence was unexcelled by 
that of any of the body.  In 1871, his party having obtained control of the 
Senate, he was chosen Speaker thereof; and demonstrated in that place his 
fairness and impartiality, as well as his admirable skill as a parliamentarian.  
In the winter of 1874, the one prior to that in which Mr. Wallace was elected 
United States Senator, the Legislature was engaged in framing the acts necessary 
to carry into effect the provisions of the new constitution.  To this work Mr. 
Wallace earnestly addressed himself, and much of the important legislation of 
that session bears the impress of his mind.
  The general act of incorporation, which is regarded as one of the best of the 
kind on the statute books of any State in the country, was his work, and the law 
regulating and classifying cities and providing for their debts also came from 
his hand.  The act of 1883 providing for arbitration of labor disputes, which 
was first enacted in the United States and was purely tentative in its 
character, was the work of his hand, and the change in the general railroad law 
of that session, which gave much more liberality to their construction, was also 
largely aided by him.
  In the election of 1874 his party had secured control of the legislature on 
joint ballot, and by common consent Mr. Wallace was turned to by his party as 
its candidate for the United States Senate.  In the few years that had elapsed 
since he walked into the Senate chamber a pale, delicate and almost unknown 
young man, he had outstripped many Democratic leaders of less force, but more 
pretentions.  Of course, several prominent leaders of his party, were candidates 
for the nomination for United States Senator, but it did not need the expression 
of the Democrats in the Legislature to show that Mr. Wallace was the choice of 
two-thirds of them.  So pronounced was the feeling in his favor that long before 
the Legislature met the question was practically settled, and when the 
Democratic caucus met there were only sixteen votes out of 121 cast for all the 
opposing candidates.
  Mr. Wallace took his seat in the Senate of the United States on the 4th of 
March, 1875, and almost immediately assumed a leading position in the national 
councils of his party.  His reputation as a man of political force, gained by 
practical service in Pennsylvania, followed him in the broader work at the 
capital of the Republic, and he had been in the Senate but a very short time 
before his judgment was sought and his advice taken upon all matters of party 
management.  During his term in the Senate he served upon the important 
committees of finance, appropriations and foreign relations.  At the time when 
the Democrats drifted towards division, Mr. Wallace was of great service to his 
party in inducing it to take conservative action upon leading questions and in 
tempering and controlling the bitterness of opposing factions.  In all the 
political events transpiring during his six years at the National Capital, Mr. 
Wallace held a foremost place, and, although antagonized at every step by his 
rivals for leadership in the State, he maintained his position and almost 
universally scored a victory over his adversaries.
  In 1872 he was a delegate to the Democratic National Convention at Baltimore 
and chairman of the delegation, and voted against Horace Greeley and for Judge 
Black, but followed his party in supporting Greeley for the Presidency after his 
nomination.
  In 1874 he presided over the convention of his party at Pittsburg, one of the 
most important of its history.  It was so impartially controlled and the order 
maintained was so exemplary that it exerted much influence in winning the 
Legislature for the Democracy in the then succeeding election.  In 1876 he was 
again a delegate to the St. Louis National Convention and again was chairman of 
the delegation.  In 1880 he was influential at Cincinnati in securing the 
nomination of General Hancock to the Presidency, although he declined to go upon 
the delegation.  In 1884 he was upon the delegation to Chicago, but, declining 
any of the official places in the delegation he was directed by it to present 
the name of Mr. Randall as the candidate of Pennsylvania.  He did this in such a 
spirit of broadminded fairness, and so forcibly and eloquently, that his brief 
speech was declared to be the oratorical gem of the occasion.
  Mr. Wallace's career as a lawyer is as eminent as his record as a politician.  
Starting without opportunities or influential friends he rapidly rose to a 
prominent place among the leaders of the bar of the State.  While serving in the 
Senate, he did not neglect his legal work.  During the labor troubles in the 
Clearfield region, he took a judicious and equitable part between the coal 
operators and the striking miners.  Although counsel for the Commonwealth and 
the coal operators, he was never violent in his denunciation of the workman.  In 
the great trial which took place at Clearfield, when the leaders of the labor 
strikes were arrested for conspiracy and the question of the organization and 
conduct of the labor unions was up for judicial investigation, Mr. Wallace was 
counsel for the coal operators in their actions against the miners.  The late 
Senator Matt Carpenter, Judge Hughes, of Pottsville, and other eminent lawyers, 
defended the action of the labor union.  Judge Orvis presided and the trial was 
a long and desperately fought legal battle.
  John Siney, the head of the labor unions, was acquitted because no overt act 
could be proved against him, but Xingo Parkes and other prominent labor 
unionists were convicted and sent to the penitentiary.  Mr. Wallace interposed 
in behalf of the convicted men and urged upon the court the utmost clemency.  He 
took the ground that the moral effect of the conviction of the leading strikers 
was greater than a harsh execution of the law.  In all the many labor troubles 
that have occurred in Clearfield county, Mr. Wallace has taken a prominent part 
as assistant counsel to the law officers of the county.  He has also represented 
the large coal operators in that region, and by his judicious advice and 
discreet interposition between contending forces, law and order have been very 
well preserved, and never have troops been called into the county to preserve 
the peace, as they have in nearly every other mining district in Pennsylvania.  
In the labor riots in 1877, as in all others that have occurred in the 
Clearfield region, Mr. Wallace's action and advice were effective and all 
important.  He took a judicious ground between the workmen and the operators.  
He held that the men had the right to strike, but no right to prevent others 
working, and the quiet but firm position assumed by the operators and 
authorities under his advice prevented bloodshed and restored order in the 
region.  The result of his attitude is best displayed by the fact that since 
1877 there has no violence attended any of the strikes in all that region.
  The qualities of mind that Mr. Wallace early exhibited specially fitted him 
for dealing with the delicate questions which this condition of things imposed.  
He was always noted for great courage, tact and good judgment.  Untiring energy 
and tenacity are among his striking characteristics, and his powers of endurance 
and capacity for work were simply remarkable.
  The case of Turner vs. the Commonwealth, reported in Fifth Norris, gives a 
fair illustration of the tenacity of purpose with which Mr. Wallace fought his 
legal battles and followed a trail in spite of all obstacles.  He was counsel 
for defense, and feeling ran high against his client, who was convicted of 
murder in the first degree and sentenced to be hung.  Mr. Wallace took the case 
to the Supreme Court and his argument for a reversal of the judgment of the 
lower court is regarded as one of the strongest ever delivered before that 
tribunal.  It was also a successful one, for the decision of the court was 
reversed and a new trial ordered.  He secured a change of venue from Clearfield 
to Clinton county and the case was retired.  The Commonwealth was struck in one 
of its weakest points, and after one of the most dramatic scenes ever witnessed 
in a court room in Central Pennsylvania, his client was acquitted.  Mr. Wallace 
had given three years of hard work to the case and illustrated in a striking 
manner those qualities of mind and body that brought him fortune and fame.
  In those branches of the law most useful in the development of an astute and 
deep legal mind, Senator Wallace was greatly proficient.  The trial of ejectment 
on original title is one of those branches.  This field has given to the legal 
profession, in the last half century, its strongest minds.  Chief Justices 
Woodward, Thompson, Black and Agnew graduated in this school and fitted 
themselves for their high duties by work at the bar and on the local bench.  The 
records of the Supreme Court, in many of its cases, show the impress of Mr. 
Wallace's mind upon the creation of a system of law applicable to and resulting 
from titles, surveys and patents.  Hagerty vs. Mathers, reported in 5th Casey, 
and again in 1st Wright, is an example of this class of cases.  One of the most 
noted of these cases was the celebrated Houtz ejectment, involving the location 
of the tracts of land upon which Houtzdale is built and perhaps 10,000 people 
live.  His position and theories as to the true location were finally 
vindicated, after three trials in as many different courts, and his clients were 
successful.  Governor Beaver and ex-Solicitor General Jenks were his antagonists 
in the last trial of the case, and it is no reflection on them to say that they 
were unsuccessful both in the court below and in the Supreme Court.
  After leaving the Senate Mr. Wallace devoted himself to bringing returns from 
his large landed estate, which had been neglected during his official life.  In 
his later years he did more to develop the bituminous coal interests of the 
Clearfield region than had ever been done before, and he reaped the reward of 
his industry and enterprise.  The projection of the Beech Creek Railroad as a 
branch of the Reading System, and a competitive factor in the transportation of 
the coal seeking an eastward market, was one of the agencies of this work.  It 
is a financial success and has greatly enhanced the value of the coal lands of 
the section it traverses.  While not connected with the machinery of its 
operation, he was its president from the beginning.  Upon the branches of the 
Pennsylvania system traversing his county he had also large interests, and 
constantly aided in developing new fields and giving employment to labor upon 
new and needed extensions.
  As years came to him, the asperities that result from the political action of 
an aggressive man, seemed to grow softer, and broader views and milder thoughts 
took their place.  From being somewhat partisan and bitter as a speaker, he 
became conservative and thoughtful of the future of the people.  His first 
appearance at a State convention since 1880 was in 1887, when he was called to 
preside.  The views of his party's policy he then presented are well known to 
have been his own earnest convictions, and those of us who knew him well, know 
that no prouder trophy could have been his than to have engrafted on the organic 
law of the State reform looking to the growth of intelligence among her people 
and elevating the standard of their morals and public purity.
  It is but natural that a man of his strength of character, habits and 
disposition and one who bore such a conspicuous part in shaping political 
controversies, should have been assailed and criticized.  It is to his credit 
that he had many bitter enemies, and still more to his honor that he was able to 
meet them with success and to rise to eminence by sheer force of character, 
energy and ability.
  From another source we take the following in regard to this eminent lawyer and 
citizen:
  "August 30, 1847.  On reading the certificate of Josiah W. Smith, George R. 
Barrett and John F. Weaver, board of examiners, and on motion of George R. 
Barrett, William A. Wallace, Esq., was admitted to practice as an attorney of 
Clearfield county and was sworn, etc.,
  William C. Welsh, Prothy.  (Continuance Docket No. 6, page 161.)
  "He was then 19 years and 9 months old.  His first case was entered on 
September 2, 1847, 3 days after his admission, as follows:
  James Brothers vs. Andrew Barnhart No. 33, August Term, 1847.  Transcript from 
Docket of James McMurray, of judgment $14.30.  Int. 19 Aug. 1846.  Entered Sept. 
2, 1847.
  "He was distinguished from everybody else who has ever practiced law here in 
these respects:  He was more aggressive and persistent and industrious.  To 
these qualities he added a wonderdfully quick apprehension and a comprehensive 
grasp of his whole case which he never relaxed until he accomplished his 
purpose.  Long before I knew him or any of the other men who practiced here I 
asked my father what there was about him which gave him such a reputation over 
everybody else.  He said that he got all the points in his case, that he omitted 
nothing; when I came to know him afterwards I thought this was a pretty good 
summary of what distinguished him in the trial of a case.
  "No man can practice law to any considerable extent without having occasions 
which will test the kind of a man he is.  A lawyer does his work publicly under 
the direction and supervision of the court and under the glaring criticism of 
other members of the Bar who may be either arrayed against him in the particular 
case, or whose sympathies for some reason may be opposed to him.  In most other 
employments a man may measurably conceal his action and motives but not so in 
law.  These remarks are suggested by an experience Senator Wallace had in the 
summer of 1875.  A most serious difficulty in protecting property in a conflict 
between the coal operators and their employes was encountered in this county.  A 
large number of men were arrested charged with riot and conspiracy.  The first 
trial occurred on the 7th of June and the second trial against the same 
defendants on the 28th of September, each of them occupying a week or more and 
each of them resulting in a verdict of guilty.  The two most noted defendants 
were known as Siney and Parks.  They had a State reputation, if not a National 
reputation, for their identity with labor organizations.  Senator Wallace aided 
only by Judge Krebs, then quite a young man, conducted the prosecutions on the 
part of the defendants.  There was perhaps the most noted array of counsel for 
the defense we have ever had in this county.  Matt Carpenter, then United States 
Senator, and with a National reputation as a great lawyer, Frank Hughes, who had 
been at the head of the Schuylkill county Bar for perhaps 50 years, and Linn 
Bartholomew, the most noted jury lawyer in that section, appeared with Judge 
Barrett and Walter Barrett on the part of the defense.  William M. McCullough 
told me that he had asked Senator Wallace if he realized the effect that his 
prosecution of these cases would have upon his political future.  Without a 
moment's hesitation, the Senator said to him, that he had no fear whatever from 
any such source, that this was an occasion that required of a lawyer moral 
courage, and that he proposed to assume the responsibility of doing his duty as 
he understood it.
  "This generation understands very poorly how much we are indebted to the 
course taken by Senator Wallace at that time.  We have never had either before 
or since such a crisis as occurred at that time - 35 years ago.  W. R. McPherson 
was sheriff.  Wallace prepared his proclamation, which was issued and scattered 
broadcast throughout the county.  He repudiated the idea that it was necessary 
to call for State troops, and acted upon the assumption that the police power of 
this county was adequate to compel obedience to the laws.  There was perhaps 
never an instance when a lawyer of ability and experience, and with a large 
following in the county, had a better opportunity to perform a great public and 
professional duty, and no man ever did perform such a duty more courageously and 
fearlessly than did Senator Wallace.  It was a service similar to that which 
Franklin B. Gowan performed when he prosecuted to a finish the leaders of the 
Molly Maguires in Schuylkill county, and similar also to the great public 
service which was performed by Grover Cleveland on a larger scale in suppressing 
the labor riots in Chicago and aiding in the conviction of those who with red 
hands had trampled upon the rights of both liberty and property."
  He was married to a daughter of Hon. Richard Shaw, of Clearfield, Pa., July 
20, 1848.  He died in New York, May 22, 1896, and was buried in the family plot 
in Clearfield, Pa.  Senator Wallace left to survive him a widow, Margaret A. 
Wallace, who died March 18, 1911, at Clearfield, Pa., and the following children 
who all reside in Clearfield, Pa.; Mary W. Krebs, widow of David L. Krebs; Edgar 
Shaw Wallace; Harry F. Wallace; William E. Wallace; Gussie L. Wrigley, wife of 
John W. Wrigley; Margaret W. Smith, wife of Allison O. Smith, President Judge of 
Clearfield county, Pa.