PIONEER AFTER WHOM THE TOWN OF WALLACE WAS NAMED WAS HONORED FOR THE FIRST TIME WITH A CEREMONY ON SEPTEMBER 16, 2006

STOCKTON -- September 16, 2006 -- One hundred and twenty-five years after its founding, residents of theCalaveras County town of Wallace and their neighbors, for the first time in history honored the man after whom the town is named.  In 1882, John Wallace surveyed the railroad line that went through the area; his son, John Herbert Wallace, then surveyed the townsite itself. 

A special ceremony sponsored by the Society for the Preservation of West Calaveras History (SPWCH) was held at the Wallace Family plot at the Stockton Rural Cemetery at 11 a.m. on Saturday, September 16, 2006.    The SPWCH recently helped restore the Wallace gravesite.

John Wallace was a '49er from England whose engineering skills were first put to use by the Tuolumne Water Co. and then as Surveyor for San Joaquin County before he laid the line for the San Joaquin & Sierra Nevada Railroad which connected Lodi and Valley Springs in the early 1880s.  He was also an older brother of Alfred Russel Wallace, one of the most famous naturalists of the age.

For more information on the commemoration, please contact Sal Manna at the Society for the Preservation of West Calaveras History at (209) 772-0336.

PO Box 714, Burson, CA 95225 - (209) 772-0336
westcalaverashistory@ourvalleysprings.com
SPWCH, Inc. is a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt corporation;
Contributions are tax-deductible