Wallace, William S.

Born: 1802-08-10 Lancaster County, Pennsylvania

Died: 1867-05-23 Springfield, Illinois

Wallace graduated from the Medical School of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia in 1824, and in 1836, he settled in Springfield, where he practiced medicine until his death. In 1839, Wallace married Frances Todd, Mary Lincoln's sister. Abraham and Mary named William Wallace "Willie" Lincoln after Wallace. In 1849, President Zachary Taylor appointed Wallace as a pension agent on Abraham Lincoln's recommendation. In 1850, Wallace owned $6,000 in real estate. By 1860, Wallace had amassed $10,000 in real estate, with a personal estate of $1,000. In 1861, Lincoln appointed Wallace as Paymaster in the United States Army.

John Carroll Power and S. A. Power, History of the Early Settlers of Sangamon County, Illinois (Springfield, IL: Edwin A. Wilson, 1876), 748-49; U.S. Census Office, Seventh Census of the United States (1850), Sangamon County, IL, 119-20; U.S. Census Office, Eighth Census of the United States (1860), Sangamon County, IL, 143; Memorandum concerning Orville Paddock and William S. Wallace.