WALLACE, BENJAMIN RUSH (1800-1878). Benjamin Rush Wallace, pioneer, attorney, and statesman, was born at Warrenton, Virginia, in 1800. He married a native of Virginia named Rebecca, born about 1811. Apparently they had no children; however, they adopted a nephew's son in later years. After his marriage Wallace enrolled briefly at the United States Military Academy at West Point. In 1837 he settled at San Augustine, Texas, where he opened a law practice and a mercantile business. He was one of twenty royal arch Masons to form the Rising Star Chapter No. 4, chartered on December 4, 1841; this lodge was an original member of the Grand Chapter of the Republic of Texas.qv In 1843 Wallace was secretary of the company that established the new town of Hamilton in Shelby County. He was elected to represent San Augustine County at the Ninth Congress, 1844-45. After annexationqv he served as a senator in the First, Second, and Third legislatures, 1846-50. He was orator in 1846 of Red Land Masonic Lodge No. 3 and one of fifteen selected in 1848 to the board of trustees of San Augustine University of Eastern Texas. On February 2, 1850, the Rising Star Chapter No. 4 was rechartered as No. 9, and again Wallace was active in the formation. He moved from San Augustine to Calaway Lake, Tarrant County, about 1863, and lived there until his death, on August 28, 1878. He was buried on family property near the lake.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: George L. Crocket, Two Centuries in East Texas (Dallas: Southwest, 1932; facsimile reprod., 1962). Texas House of Representatives, Biographical Directory of the Texan Conventions and Congresses, 1832-1845 (Austin: Book Exchange, 1941).
McXie Whitton Martin
