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��Hon. Rodney Wallace .
��died at Rindge, May 29, 1857 ; and his wife died at Fitchburg, February 27, 1876. He was the first of his family in this country to adopt the spelling Wallace, instead of Wallis. He had eight children, of whom the subject of this sketch was the second.
As we have said, at the age of twelve, when most lads are comfortably cared for at home, young Wallace started out in life for himself. He let himself to a farmer for forty dollars for the first year, with the privilege of attending school eight weeks in the winter. It turns out that the first forty dollars he earned were the beginning of a large fortune, without a dishonest dollar in it, and that the eight weeks of schooling of that winter on the farm, was the beginning of a knowledge, gleaned here and there as opportunity oflered, which fits him for prominent positions of trust and responsibility.
At an early age, sixteen I think, he was charged with the responsibility of driving freight teams from Rindge to Boston, returning with loads of mer- chandise. In the discharge of this trust he displayed the energy, tact, and trustworthiness which were prophecies of the man. He was taking his first lessons in the school of business, and proved himself an apt scholar.
Dr. Stephen Jewett was a somewhat notable physician of Rindge. His fame in the cure of chronic and acute diseases was wide spread. He was frequently called upon to make professional visits in Boston and other New England cities and towns. His medicines attained a wide celebrity. Their manufacture and sale became a large and lucrative busi- ness, and was carried on after the death of Dr. Jewett, by his son, Stephen Jew- ett, Jr. The energy which young Wal- lace had already shown induced Mr. Jewett to put the whole business of sell- ing these medicines into his hands.
��He entered into this employment in 1843, ^t the age of twenty, and contin- ued in it till he came to Fitchburg in 1853. In selling these medicines he travelled over five of the New England States. He said to the writer that this was a good school in geography for him, for he became acquainted with the to- pography of these states, and the location of all their important places.
Such were the beginnings of a busi- ness career of great prosperity. It was in these ways that he got his start in life, and in these lesser employments he proved himself worthy of and equal to the greater tasks yet before him. Here he showed the same judgment and far- sighted wisdom, which have marked his career in the larger, more conspicuous circles of the business world, and won him a name which is everywhere re- peated with respect, and a reputation for integrity and honest dealing which any man might covet.
HIS BUSINESS UFE.
In 1853 Mr. Wallace came to Fitch- burg and entered upon that period which, for convenience, I have named his business life. He formed a co-partner- ship with Stephen Shepley, known as Shepley and Wallace. They were whole- sale dealers in books, stationery, paper- stock, and cotton-waste. This firm continued under the name of Shepley and Wallace, and R. Wallace and Co. till July I, 1865. On this day the firm dissolved, and the business was divided. Mr. Wallace took the department of paper-stock and cotton-waste, which he still carries on. To what proportions it has grown, under his management, may be judged from the fact that the busi- ness done amounts at least to $200,000 a year.
December 31, 1864, Stephen Shepley, Benjamin Snow, and Rodney Wallace bought the Lyon Paper Mill and the
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