City Directories and History: The historic Wallace home was stood Northeast of York on High #49 and was a center of family activity for decades. The Wallace family were heavily involved in the Beth Shiloh community. Also see additional documents under the WALLACE PAPERS, a link found under the primary image.
In the picture below, six of the eight Wallace children are in the frame. My mother, called Inez and her brother George are not pictured.
I believe that my grandmother’s father Alexander Strain passed the house on to Grandmother, named Sarah Jane Strain. Alexander, buried at Beth Shiloh was born in 1798 and Sarah was born in 1863, so the generation was long. The old man with heavy beard was not a family member but may have been a boarder.
I knew all the children: Alexander McKee Wallace, John Sylvanus Wallace, George Rufus Wallace, James Randolph Wallace, Sarah Elizabeth Wallace, Mary Wallace, Ella Wallace, Margaret Inez Wallace – Posey (my mom) eight in all. Jim died in his forties due to a cattle loading accident. I remember his funeral at the former Clyde Ora Inn in York, and the flag, as he was a veteran. George married late to a woman who worked in Divine Saviour Nursing Home, called Madge. (I can get a perfect list when I am back in our apartment in town.
The house was quite large when finished. Started as a basic cabin of two rooms and hallway, it dates from 1839 so my mother says. Those rooms seem to have provided the nucleus of the house. Facing the image the room on the left seemed modern to me as it had hardwood flooring. It preceded 1895 for sure. Back of that room was a large room with grate, which served as the parlor when I was a first grader. Back of the center room, there was a large dining room which probably had board walls with paper, but at some time the room was sealed nicely with sheetrock. One window looked out on a screened porch which opened out onto the back yard where chickens and the two Guinea Hens wandered. A kind of open drain provided services to the kitchen so the diet of the hens was supplemented. In the back yard was a big wood pile which George took care of to provide fuel for the Majestic Range in the Kitchen, the only warm room in the house. He constantly chopped wood with no complaint.
One room was added onto the parlor mentioned which was George’s sleeping room. A grate furnished feeble heat to this frigid room. One could measure the cold by whether the urine in the slop jar froze!
Moving around to the front yard, when the porch was expanded to cover almost the whole front, one could enjoy a swing and three local newspapers. Opening onto this porch was a door to a room which brought symmetry to the house, giving it the harmonious form it had in my childhood. Story is that it was John’s room, as he was a bachelor at one time. Rooms were added on with few plans, and the additions often connected with other rooms without any hallways. In my childhood the rooms were often filled with stuff from other times – hatboxes, the pump organ which played rather well, odd pieces of furniture. One piece I have was in George’s room, and was a fine carpenter made bureau of walnut veneer once painted white. I re-did this piece and own it now.
In the front bedroom, where my grandmother died there was a bookcase with glass doors, It is quite beautiful and my cousin Katherine, John’s daughter has this piece in her home on John’s Island SC. Sometimes called Aunt Sallie, it partners with Uncle George, which I own. The date on Uncle George is uncertain, but surely about 1850 or so.
The origins of the Wallaces, and related people is typical, in that their antecedents were originally from Northern Ireland, called the Scots Irish. There is a Scots component to this family and most all are Presbyterians of one sort of another. My Grandfather, George Refinus Wallace was a Methodist Church South. Grandmother was baptized in the once gorgeous Tirzah A. R. P. Church which has been replaced with a more recent structure. Many ARP folks did not sing hymns of human composition but versions of the Psalms in verse and meter. Some few did not use any instrument. The York ARP has a pipe organ which I have played. It is nice but not of any distinction from other small instruments in churches.
While the family church membership in Beth Shiloh was important, I have not seen a record of many becoming officers. That task fell to persons of my generation. It is a pretty church, remodeled. Rebecca Chambers has written a fine history with pictures of the building and people of Beth-Shiloh. I mention that my father, John J. Posey superintended the building of the educational building and fellowship hall, eventually named for Mr. Curtis Moore a much loved full time pastor of the church, who lived in the new Manse next to the church.
If I stood on tiptoes in the highest point of the church yard, I might see a bit of the Wallace farmhouse.
As far as I can know, my grandfather farmed a 360 acre farm. Perhaps cotton, and surely truck crops were grown. My grandfather, due to age, was not active in many ways with the farm. The house remained unpainted for many years and it caused me some sorrow as it looked so deteriorated. He died in 1934 and his son George did farm parts of it, using some surveying instruments to set terraces to combat erosion, which had taken hold.
There are evidences of some powered equipment, including a Model T engine possibly hooked to a wood saw. Grandfather had an International engine which may have powered a cotton gin. George plowed with mules which were well cared for.
There were a few milk cows, milked by Aunt Sallie in a small barn some distance from the house, perhaps due to the odor of the manure and the presence of flies. This product was sold t o a dairy perhaps to use for cheese since it was surely not Grade A. Hogs, slaughtered by George in cold weather provided much meat, usually salt cured. Beef was bought and stored in one of the new freezer companies that became popular before home freezers.
All the Wallaces read and wrote. My mother, a graduate of Winthrop had a fine clear hand and loved mathematics which she taught for years and years. Jack, a Wofford graduate became a school superintendent on John’s Island. He was an active Mason and a Knight Commander of the Court of Honor and Moderator of Charleston Presbytery. Also Clerk of Session in the John’s Island Presbyterian Church. A conservative man but also gentle and kind to all.
Upcountry people like the Wallaces had little interest in the things going on in the Low Country, and I find little evidence of involvement in the law. (Written and submitted to R&R by Lawton Wallace Posey – 2016) (R&R is appreciative of the assistance of the HC of York Co, in making copies of the Wallace Family Collection available to R&R.)
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