"A George Benjamin Wallace, Utah Pioneer of 1847, Biography"

By Vivian W. Wilkins (granddaughter), written in 1936

George Benjamin Wallace was the son of John Wallace and Mary True Wallace.  He was born in the little town of Epson, Merrimack County, New Hampshire on February 16, 1817.

His boyhood was spent in this little New England town and county, on a well tilled small farm.  He just have experienced many interesting things in the making of this great Republic of ours, because it was then in its early development.

When he was just a boy he was stricken with the dreadful disease of tuberculosis, and the doctors said he would never grow to manhood. But our Heavenly Father has a work for him to do as we shall see later, and through the power of prayer he was made well and strong.

When he was 23 years of age he met Mary C. McMurphy, a young woman from Boston, and fell in love with her.  They were married on February 13, 1840, in the town of Northwood, New Hampshire, just a few miles from the place of his birth, Epson. Their first home was in Epson, New Hampshire, where grandfather engaged in farming and also in doing carpenter work, which he did when he was not busy on the farm.  Shortly after their marriage they moved to Boston, Mass.  Here grandfather became engaged in the business of contractor and builder, and it was here in Boston that he became interested in the new religion called Mormonism.  He became thoroughly converted and was baptized in December 1842.  Again we wee how the Lord gathers on of a family and two of a city.  Because his sister, Sarah, and himself were the only members of the family to embrace the Gospel, and she never lived to come to Utah.

His young and devoted wife could not see Mormonism and refused to have anything to do with it.  This condition finally brought about a separation between the.  She took her three small children and went back to the home of her parents, leaving grandfather stunned and heartbroken. After a few months he went to Nauvoo, where the body of the Saints was assembled.  His thought must have been constantly with his wife and children, because in a short time he again went back to Boston as a missionary.  His particular object and desire being to visit with his wife and to try to persuade her to go with him to Nauvoo and to become acquainted with Mormonism.  But if anything she was more embittered than ever, probably due to the influence of her people who were very bitter.  At any rate she was so bitter she would have nothing to do with him.

This was a crucial moment in his life.  He couldn’t deny the faith that he had joined he knew was true.  So he returned to Nauvoo and resolved with all his heart to cast his lot with the church and its people, saying as he did so, “I feel that I have done my full duty towards my wife, Mary, and towards my God.”

As time went on he was married to Melissa Crowell. He took a decided active part in Church activities, and he was an ardent defender of the Prophet, Joseph Smith, although it was always a source of regret that grandfather never met the Prophet.

When the Prophet Joseph Smith was nominated for President of the United States, grandfather became an ardent supporter and was very enthusiastic during the entire political campaign, going from one part of the country to the other stumping for the Prophet.  He even delivered a political speech at this time for the Prophet in the famous Fenniel Hall of Boston.  We all know the outcome of this issue and the events that led to the Prophet’s death, of the confusion at “Nauvoo the City Beautiful”, and the preparations that were being made by the Saints to leave their city. Grandfather went through all these trying experiences, finally leaving Nauvoo for Winter Quarters, where he and his wife spent the winter of 1846-1847, and it was here that the first child of his wife, Melissa, was born.

Preparations were now rapidly being made for that long trek across the trackless prairie in search of the land where they, the Mormon people, might worship the God of their choice.  And grandfather was appointed captain of 50, with Brother Abraham O. Smoot as president of the company.  It was on January 17, 1847 that this company was organized.  In the spring of that year they started on that matchless western migration, with their young baby.  What courage it took.  For true courage consists not in blindly overlooking danger, but in meeting it and conquering it, and this they did.  While crossing the plains grandfather kept a diary and from this diary, church historians have gathered much of their valuable information concerning the nerve racking journey.

They arrived in the Great Salt Lake Valley on September 26, 1847, and camped in the Old Fort, now known as Pioneer park.  Soon after his arrival he chose a piece of ground on which to build a home of his own. It was on the corner of what is now known as 1^st North and 2^nd West.  Here he built a one room brick house.  The bricks were made form a mixture of red clay and a fine gravel. After it was completed he then moved the little log room from the Old Fort, that had been their home when they first arrived in the valley, to their new home site.

They had just got comfortably settled in their new home when grandfather was called to go on a mission to England.  He accepted and left his home and family on the 18^th of October 1849, just two years from the time he had entered the valley.  Just before starting on his mission his wife said to him, “What will I do for a time piece, if you take the watch brought from Boston”.  President Brigham said to him, “Brother Wallace, if you will leave that watch with your wife I promise you that you will come back home with a gold one/”  So he left the watch and sure enough when he returned home he had a gold watch and long gold chain.

When he left for his mission it took him 50 days to reach the Missouri River, averaging about 20 miles a day.  After a long and tedious journey he arrived at his field of labor.  He spent the next two years in preaching the Gospel to the people of Great Britain.  He certainly must have gained the love and respect of the people with whom he labored because when he returned home the Saints and friends that he had made gave to him a purse of $800 in cash, besides his gold watch and many other presents.

He returned home on the steamer Canada.  Upon his arrival in the United States he again went directly to the place of his birth, Epson, for the purpose of seeing his wife, Mary.  But she was not home so he reluctantly left for his home in the west and arrived in Salt Lake about June 1, 1852.

One year after his return from his mission he yielded obedience to the higher law of marriage, taking three sisters for his plural wives.  They were the daughters of Edward and Sarah Davis from London, England.  They immigrated to America on the same steamer that grandfather returned home from his mission on. Their names were Martha, Hannah and Lydia Davis.  It was then necessary to build four more rooms to the original red brick room, and as the years went by he built homes for each wife.

His activities in a religious way were numerous and faith promoting.  When he first joined the Church he was made President of the Boston Branch of the Church. His home in the Old Fort in Salt Lake was the scene of many of the most important council meetings of the Church.  On February 12, 1849, the First Presidency of the Church held a meeting at his home and at this time Brother Charles C. Rich, Lorenzo Snow, Erastus Snow and Franklin D. Richards were ordained Apostles.  His wife, Melissa, was present on this occasion, and so far as we know it is the only time that a woman was ever present at an ordination of this kind.

The Salt Lake Stake was organized at his home. The ordaining of nearly all of the first Bishops took place in his home.  As a member of the High Priest Quorum of the Salt Lake Stake he participated in the ceremonies of the laying of the corner stones of the Salt Lake Temple, and offered the Dedicatory Prayer at the laying of the northwest corner of the Temple.

In 1860 he was chosen to act as second counselor to Brother Daniel Spencer of the Salt Lake Stake.  In 1866 he was chosen as first counselor.  Then in 1874 he was called to preside over the stake.  This position he filled for about two years. Then from 1877 to 1900 he acted as president of the High Priest Quorum in the Salt Lake Stake, or until his death.

In 1867, along with others, he was instrumental in securing the organization of the Brighton Ward on the West side of the Jordan River.

He was also the first sexton in Salt Lake City and laid out the City Cemetery.  His daughter, Mary Melissa, being the first person buried there.

He had charge of the Territorial farm, located where the Fair Grounds now stand.  He received this appointment from Brigham Young.  He was also a promoter to get the canals from Utah Lake.

It was the year 1875 that he homesteaded 120 acres in Granger.  He planted the first trees in this community.  These trees were moved from a nursery he had in Salt Lake.  It was located where the West High School now stands.  He introduced the nursery business into Salt Lake County and was considered a very good nurseryman and gardener.  The row of locust trees from Mr. Riggs corner, a mile south to Samuel Wallace’s corner were planted by him and the older Wallace boys – this runs from 41^st South corner to 47^th South on 32^nd West.  It was Samuel D. Wallace, son of grandfather and Hannah Davis who built the first home on the land that was homesteaded by grandfather.  He gave that home to grandma (Hannah), and he moved to one he built where Samuel J. Wallace now lives.

He was a lover of the great out of doors, God’s schoolroom.  He was of a happy, cheerful disposition.  He was patient, kind and he loved little children.  His grandchildren will always remember him tell of how he would take them on his knee and caress them.  he was a devout Christian all his life.  He was a Christian who was manfully struggling to live a Christian life and that is the highest type of man.  Grandfather was that type of man.  He always gave freely of his time and talents and his means to the Church which meant so much to him.

He was of a modest retiring disposition, but was always ready to respond to any call that came to him to help his Church and his community.  And when it came to a knowledge of the Gospel his mind was well informed, keen and alert and he was an able defender of the same.

He was the father of 45 children.  It has been said that children are God’s apostles, sent forth day by day to preach of love and hope and peace.  If so, he was given the care of a large number of God’s apostles. He proved equal to that task was no easy one, when you think he raised them during the times of pioneer life.

He lived to the ripe old age of 83 years and passed away at his home in Granger on January 1, 1900.  This home was located on the present home site of Herman Nielson.  His funeral was held in the Assembly Hall, where several hundred of his old friends and neighbors gathered to pay their respects to a man of God.  Those who spoke at his funeral were President Joseph F. Smith, George Q. Cannon, Charles W. Penrose and our own loved Bishop Daniel McRae.  He was buried in the City Cemetery.