THE DEATH OF E.G. WALLACE

Narrator: E. Green Wallace, 85, Kingston, Missouri

Mr. Wallace was born in 1840, his parents being Abathal Wallace and Adaline O. Stanford of Tennessee and later Livingston and Ray Counties Missouri.

Mr. Wallace was for many years a farmer in New York township owning the earlier Jim Filson farm. In his youth he had an adventure which is known to all of his friends. He tells it thus: During the Civil War he tried to get through the lines and reach his brothers in the Confederate army. He with other were captured by militia and were lined up to be shot since they were considered guerillas. At the crack of the guns Mr. Wallace received no shot but he fell and feigned death. To make sure of killing the men, the militia leader shot each of the victims through the head; but in Mr. Wallace's case the bullet passed through his hat, cut off a lock of hair and went on without harm. Thus he twice escaped death but he was reported as dead by the militia. After nightfall he crawled away to bushes and escaped.

Soon after this occurrence he realized that the safety of his parents' home was well as their lives were endangered because of the son's enlistment in the Southern Army. He talked it over with his father. His father was about to move to Ray County (as he did afterwards) to avoid trouble. He advised Green to enlist in the Union Army cause as a member of the militia for his own safety.

He gave him a swift riding horse and said "I hope you know how to use it." So whenever Mr. Wallace was in action as a Union militiaman, some how the unmanageable horse always turned and ran away, carrying young Green with it.

Mr. Wallace married Mary A. Kesterson 1865. The Wm. Kesterson family was also of the Southern side. They had been "burnt out" by the Caldwell County Militia in the Crab Apple trouble of 1862. Not long after the family moved to Nebraska to get out of further trouble with the militia.