Wallace

Wallace, five miles west of Canton in west central Van Zandt County, was first settled by Charles Hester, who reached the area in 1848. The town was originally named for pioneer citizen Jesse Wallace, who received a patent for 320 acres of land on September 26, 1851, bought additional acreage in 1861, and donated land for a school. When a post office was established in 1888 the town was renamed Ford for Howel E. Ford, who acquired 320 acres in the area in November 1854. Off the main road and unavailable to land seekers, the community grew slowly but did develop a Farmers' Alliance. P. G. Wallace deeded land for a local school by 1888, when the enrollment was thirty-two. In 1906 the school had seventy-two pupils; it was consolidated with the Canton Independent School District in 1947. In 1905 rural free delivery from Canton replaced the Ford post office, which had been housed in William H. Bailey's general store, and the town resumed the name of Wallace. A Wallace post office was established by 1931. Wallace United Methodist Church, organized in 1889 by Rev. W. D. Wheeler and eight church members, first met in the schoolhouse. A cottonseed warehouse handled area crops by 1900, and a cotton gin and gristmill were completed by 1906. State highway maps of 1936 showed a church, a business, and scattered dwellings at the townsite. The local population, estimated at eighty from 1933 to 1943, declined after World War II. Most residents raised livestock during the 1960s. In 1965 a church and single business remained. In 1981 only the church and scattered dwellings along the highway survived.