James A. Wallace

"As state treasurer of Kentucky Mr. Wallace is one of the prominent officials in the new capitol at Frankfort, but his home is Estill County, where for many years he has been a leading banker, public official, merchant and land owner, and a power in republican politics in that section of the state.

The Wallace family originally settled in Madison County, his great-grandfather having been the pioneer. His grandfather spent all his life as a farmer in that county. Andrew Wallace, father of the state treasurer, was born in Madison County in 1833, but grew up and spent most of his life at Irvine in Estill County, where he was a carpenter and contractor. He fought all through the Civil war as a Union soldier in the Fourteenth Kentucky Cavalry, was a stanch old-school republican in politics, and also a member of the Masonic fraternity. He served as county jailor a few years following the Civil war. He was an active member of the Methodist Episcopal Church. His death occurred at Irvine in 1903. Andrew Wallace married Clara Ellen Tracy, who was born at Stanton, Powell County, Kentucky, in 1843, and is still living at Irvine, where they were married. Their children comprised sixteen in number, three of whom died before reaching adult years. Among the others are: E. B. Wallace, a contractor and builder at Cincinnati; C. C. Wallace, a lawyer of Richmond, Kentucky; H. G. Wallace, a carpenter and contractor, who died at Irvine, September 29, 1920; T. Q. Wallace, a merchant of Irvine; Katie, wife of Estill Payne, a merchant and farmer at Blackwell, Oklahoma; Dr. T. Wallace, a physician and surgeon at Irvine.

James A. Wallace was born at Irvine in Estill County on August 5, 1867, was educated in the local public schools and had four terms in the Kentucky State College at Lexington. Leaving college in 1888, he spent two years as manager of local mills and camps along the Kentucky River for the Asher Lumber Company. For another two years he was storekeeper and gauger for the United States internal revenue department, and was then elected Circuit Court clerk of Estill County, an office he filled two terms of six years each. Then after an interval of a year he engaged in banking at Irvine, where he organized and established the Farmers Bank of Estill County in 1905, and has since been cashier of that institution, holding the office even through his present term as state treasurer. Mr. Wallace owns about 7,000 acres of land in Estill County, a large farm in Bourbon County and the Gibson ranch in Jackson County, Oklahoma, and does farming on a very extensive scale. Among important business interests he is president of the Oleum Refining Company of Pryse, Kentucky, and for twenty-five years has been a prominent merchant in Estill County, at one time operating as many as five stores in the county. He was one of the men in his section of the state who contributed of their private resources for the benefit of the war "until it hurt," and as chairman of the Victory Loan he had the satisfaction of seeing his district subscribe far beyond the quota.

Mr. Wallace was chairman of the republican county committee of Estill County for sixteen years. He was alternate delegate for the state at large to the Republican National Convention at Philadelphia when McKinley was nominated for his second term in 1900. He was a delegate to the convention at Chicago when Taft was nominated in 1908, representing the Tenth Kentucky District, and has attended a number of other national conventions in a private capacity. In the notable triumph of the republican party in the state election of 1919 he was chosen state treasurer, and he began his official term of four years January 1, 1920.

In 1902, at Winchester, Kentucky, he married Mrs. Hattie B. (Clay) Hardwick, who died May 10, 1903. Her father was a former county judge of Powell County. On May 29, 1908, at Louisville, Mr. Wallace married Mrs. Olive (Price) Breeding, daughter of David and Lucy A. (Brandenburg) Price, now deceased. Her father came to Kentucky from Wales and was a farmer in Estill County, where Mrs. Wallace was reared, finishing her education in a young ladies seminary. Mr. and Mrs. Wallace have two children: James A., Jr., born January 11, 1911, at 11 o'clock a. m., and Mary Elizabeth, born July 10, 1916.

Mr. Wallace has been a deacon in the Christian Church at Irvine for over twenty years. For two terms he was worshipful master of Irvine Lodge No. 137, A. F. and A. M., is affiliated with Richmond Chapter No. 25, R. A. M., and Richmond Commandery No. 19, K. T., is a member of Oleika Temple of the Mystic Shrine at Lexington, and is affiliated with the Knights of Pythias and filled all the chairs in the Junior Order United American Mechanics." - "Kentucky, Special Limited Edition," The American Historical Society, 1922, p. 107, Accessed 7/17/21 at https://exploreuk.uky.edu/catalog/xt7p8c9r2n9f.