Author: WALLACE, Jonathan
Biography:
WALLACE, Jonathan (1784-1873: ancestry.com)
He was born in Peterborough NH, one of the ten children of Margaret (Morrison) and Matthew Wallace. In 1795 he and his father moved to Berlin VT where he went to school and eventually became a teacher himself. He also studied medicine, probably on a practical basis without actually taking a degree; for a time he practised and was referred to as "Dr." or sometimes "M.D." He experienced a calling to preach, however, took instruction from Hosea Ballou, and in 1815 began his life as a circuit preacher for the Universalist Society. He married Lucy Bowman, a judge's daughter, in Richmond VT in 1820; they had three children. In 1822 they settled in Potsdam NY which became the base for "Father Wallace" during a long career as a preacher and pastoral instructor. He spent about a year in Boston 1828-9 being treated with little success for an epileptic condition. After the death of his wife in 1869 he lived with one of his sons in Potsdam, where he died and was buried in the Bayside Cemetery. Manuscript remains including unpublished sermons and "long poems," together with a volume of "original hymns" are held by the Special Collections Dept. of the library of St. Lawrence University in Canton NY. The archivists' notes indicate that Wallace was forced out of the ministry following "an inappropriate relationship with a parishioner" but there is no whiff of scandal or of interruption to his career in the contemporary reports of his life and death. (ancestry.com 11 Dec. 2020; Universalist Register and Almanac [1874] 125-7, accessed at nyscu.org/archives 11 Dec. 2020; Star in the West [Cincinnati OH] 8 May 1783) HJ