BIO: William WALLACE, Dauphin County, PA Contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by JAWB Copyright 2006. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/pa/dauphin/ http://www.usgwarchives.net/pa/dauphin/runk/runk-bios.htm _______________________________________________________________ Commemorative Biographical Encyclopedia of Dauphin County, Containing Sketches of Representative Citizens, and Many of the Early Scotch-Irish and German Settlers. Chambersburg, Pa.: J. M. Runk & Company, 1896, page 193. _______________________________________________________________ WALLACE, WILLIAM, was born October, 1768, in Hanover township, Dauphin county, Pa.; died Tuesday, May 28, 1816, and with his wife buried in Paxtang church graveyard. He was the eldest son of Benjamin Wallace and Elizabeth Culbertson; received a classical education; graduated at Dickinson College; studied law at Harrisburg under Galbraith Patterson, and was admitted to the bar at the June term, 1792. He became interested in the Harrisburg and Presqu' Isle Land Company, and about 1800 removed to Erie, in the affairs of which place and in the organization of the county he took an active and leading part. About 1810 he returned to Harrisburg and partly resumed his profession. Besides being a member of the bar he was a partner of his brother-in-law, John Lyon, at Pennsylvania Furnace. He was nominated by the Federalists for Congress in 1813, but defeated. He was elected the first president of the old Harrisburg Bank and was burgess of the borough at his death. He was a polite, urbane man, of slight frame and precise address. Mr. Wallace had previously married, in 1803, Rachel Forrest, daughter of Dr. Andrew Forrest, of Harrisburg, who died at Erie in 1804. Mr. Wallace married, 1806, Eleanor Maclay, daughter of Hon. William Maclay. She was born January 17, 1774, at Harris' Ferry, and died January 2, 1823, at Harrisburg.