Clark A. Wallace
CLARK A. WALLACE. Official honors and responsibility have come rapidly to Clark A. Wallace, and practically all the time since he began the practice of law at Kingman five years ago has been taken up by public work, at first as probate judge and now as county attorney.
Three generations of the Wallace family live at Kingman. The oldest is his grandfather, Richard Henry Wallace, who was born in Kentucky in 1841, descended from a family that came out of Scotland to the United States in Colonial times. Richard H. Wallace was a farmer all his active life, and lived in Kentucky until 1887, when he came to Kingman and has since been retired. He married Martha Sigler, who was born in Kentucky in 1844. Their living children are: R. F. Wallace, a merchant at Kingman; F. L. Wallace; J. A. Wallace, a merchant at Kingman; Beulah, wife of Dr. H. B. Stewart, a physician and surgeon at Morganfield, Kentucky; and R. R. Wallace, a farmer at Kingman, Kansas.
F. L. Wallace, father of Judge Wallace, was born near Morganfield, Kentucky, in 1866. He grew up near the scenes of his birth, and in 1887, at the age of twenty-one, came to Kingman, Kansas. He soon went back to Ohio to claim his bride, returning with her to Kansas and beginning life on a farm. In 1904 he left his farm and has since been engaged in the mercantile business at Kingman. F. L. Wallace is a republican in politics. He married Lucy Williamson, who was born near Mount Healthy, Ohio, in 1867 and died at Kingman August 11, 1913. Clark A. is the oldest of their seven children. Nona is the wife of Owen Duckworth, a farmer at Spivey, Kansas. Claude is connected with the Leader-Courier at Kingman; Paul S. is now serving with the Kansas National Guard in the United States Army in camp at Fort Sill, Oklahoma; Florence is now the wife of Jasper Brown, of Kokomo, Indiana; Marvin is attending the eighth grade of the Kingman public schools; and Edith is in the sixth grade of the public schools.
Clark A. Wallace was born at Kingman September 22, 1889. He graduated from the Kingman High School in 1908 and immediately entered Kansas University and completed the law course and received his LL. B. degree in 1912, being admitted to the bar the same year. While in university he became affiliated with the Delta Tau Delta social fraternity, the Sigma Delta Chi journalistic fraternity, and the Phi Alpha Delta legal fraternity. Since returning to Kingman and opening his office he has handled a general civil and criminal practice, his offices being in the First National Bank Building. In the fall of 1912 he was elected probate judge of Kingman County, and gave an exacting and discriminating administration of that responsible office from 1913 to 1917. Then in the fall of 1916 he was elected county attorney for a term of two years and besides this position he is also attorney for the Kingman Board of Education.
Judge Wallace is a member of the County and State Bar associations, is a stockholder in the Kingman Building and Loan Association, a member of the Commercial Club, a republican in politics, and is affiliated with Ninnescah Lodge No. 271, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, at Kingman, with Kingman Chapter No. 71, Royal Arch Masons, and is present eminent commander of Kingman Commandery No. 34, Knights Templar. Judge Wallace owns a farm of 160 acres in Morton County, Kansas, and has some improved property on Avenue B, West, in Kingman.
January 14, 1914, at Kingman, he married Miss Elizabeth Vandeveer, daughter of J. B. and Hannah E. (Salisbury) Vandeveer, farming people who now reside at King City, Missouri. Judge and Mrs. Wallace have one child, Mary Elizabeth, born October 26, 1915.
A Standard History of Kansas and Kansans, written & compiled by William E. Connelley, 1918, transcribed by Michael Jones, student from USD 508, Baxter Springs Middle School, Baxter Springs, Kansas, May 2, 2000.