Ernest Wallace
| Ernest Wallace
(Historian of Texas, the American West, and the Great Plains) | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| |||
| Born | June 11, 1906 Daingerfield, Morris County Texas, USA | ||
| Died | November 17, 1985 (aged 79) Lubbock, Texas | ||
| Spouse | Ellen Kegans Wallace (married 1926-his death) Children: | ||
| Religion | Episcopalian | ||
Ernest Wallace (June 11, 1906 – November 17, 1985)[1] was a historian of Texas, the American West and the southern Great Plains, who was long affiliated with Texas Tech University in Lubbock.
Historical works
Wallace, who had no middle name, wrote eleven books on Texas history. In 1952, with E. Adamson Hoebel (1906-1993) of the University of Minnesota, he co-authored The Comanches: Lords of the South Plains, which in 2014 was in its fifteenth edition and remains a pre-eminent study of the Comanche Indians.[2] Wallace's and Hoebel's expertise in anthropology proved helpful in writing this book.
With David M. Vigness, he co-edited in 1963 Documents of Texas History.
With Adrian N. Anderson and Rupert Richardson of Hardin-Simmons University in Abilene, Texas, he co-authored Richardson's Texas: The Lone Star State (1970 and 1981).
In 1964, Wallace published Ranald S. McKenzie of the Texas Frontier a study of the exploits of Ranald Slidell Mackenzie (1840-1889) in the Texas Panhandle. n 1965, he published a study of the closing of the Texas frontier entitled Texas in Turmoil. His last book, released in 1979, The Howling of the Coyotes Reconstruction Efforts to Divide Texas is a study of divisions in Texas Reconstruction in the aftermath of the American Civil War.[3] His 1943 doctoral dissertation, Charles De Morse, Editor and Statesman, was updated in 1979.[4] Wallace also edited the acclaimed Texas' Last Frontier: Fort Stockton and the Trans-Pecos, written by Clayton Williams, Sr., the father of the 1990 Republican gubernatorial nominee, Clayton Wheat Williams, Jr. (born 1931), who narrowly lost the race to the Democrat liberal, Ann Richards. A paperback version of this work was released in December 1982.[5]
Early years and education
Wallace was born to Thomas Wallace and the former Lula Barber in Daingerfield in Morris County in east Texas. His early education was procured in rural schools in Morris and neighboring Cass County. He received his Bachelor of Science degree from Texas A&M University-Commerce, then known as East Texas Teacher's College. Wallace began his teaching career in the 1925-1926 academic year at the White Lick community east of Sweetwater in Nolan County in West Texas; there he wed his wife, the former Ellen Kegans (January 16, 1908 – October 12, 1987), a college classmate fromMerkel in Taylor County near Abilene, and the couple had a daughter.[6]
The next year, he returned to East Texas to teach at Linden in Cass County, where he was also a |coach. For some eight years, he was until 1935 the superintendent of the public school in the Cornett community in Cass County. From 1935 to 1936, he taught in Tulia in Swisher County south of Amarillo.[3][6]
University career
Wallace received his Master of Arts degree at then Texas Technological College in 1935, after two years of study, and began as a Texas Tech instructor of history in 1936. He was promoted to assistant professor in 1941, associate professor in 1943, and full professor in 1946. In 1942, he completed his Ph.D. from the University of Texas at Austin, under the supervision of Professor Walter Prescott Webb, author of the definitive work, The Great Plains. From 1945 to 1949, he directed the Texas Tech summer school program and was the assistant dean of the School of Arts and Sciences from 1945 to 1955. He was awarded fellowships in 1938 and 1952, respectively, by the UT Regents and the Ford Foundation. He served for a time as a consultant to the United States Department of Justice regarding suits filed against the national government by the Kiowa, Kiowa-Apache, and Comanche tribes.[6]
From 1975 to 1979, he was consultant for The Great Chiefs and The Texans for Time-Life Books. In 1967, he was among the first four professors named a Paul Whitfield Horn Professor, the highest recognition that the university bestows. He held the designation until his retirement in 1976, the official end of his 40-year career. (Horn was the founding president of Texas Tech, having served from 1923 to 1932.)[7] The next historian at Texas Tech so honored was Allan Kuethe in 1990. In 1954, Wallace was named a fellow of the Texas State Historical Association and served as the associatio0n president from 1977 to 1978. In 1968, the West Texas Chamber of Commerce presented Wallace with the "Cultural Achievement Award for Significant Contributions to Historical Literature." In 1969, he received the Minnie Stevens Piper Award for his contributions to historical scholarship. In 1971, the West Texas Museum Association presented Wallace with its Action Award for his "outstanding contributions to the enrichment and culture" of the South Plains.[6]
Among Wallace's colleagues at Texas Tech were professors emeriti Paul H. Carlson and Alwyn Barr, both also authors on Texas topics.
In 1975, Wallace received the Outstanding Teacher Award, which involved the establishment of the Ernest Wallace Scholarship in History, from the Texas Tech chapter of Phi Alpha Theta honor society. Though he suffered a heart attack in 1972, Wallace recovered to continue his academic duties and was still active professionally long after his official retirement,[6] having maintained an office in Holden Hall, the home of the Tech history department.
Legacy
Besides the Texas State and West Texas historical associations, Wallace was active in the American Historical Association, the Organization of American Historians, the Southern Historical Association, the Western Historical Association, the Panhandle-Plains Historical Society, and the Texas Association of Classroom Teachers.[6] The West Texas Historical Association offers the Ernest Wallace Grant for graduate student research at Texas Tech University.
He was a member of St. Paul's Episcopal Church, the Rotary International, and the Masonic lodge. Wallace died of a second heart attack at Methodist Hospital in Lubbock. He and Mrs. Wallace are interred in Lubbock at Resthaven Memorial Park.[8] His scholarly papers are housed in the Southwest Collection at Texas Tech.[4]
References
- ↑ Ernest Wallace. Ancestry.com. Retrieved on October 2, 2019.
- ↑ The Comanches: Lords of the South Plains. books.google.com. Retrieved on September 11, 2009.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 David Murrah, "Replacing the I-35 Bias with an I-20 Bias: The Landmark Work of Richardson, Holden, and Wallace," West Texas Historical Review, Vol. 90 (2014), pp. 54-55.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Ernest Wallace: An Inventory of His Papers ... at the Southwest Collections Library. lib.utexas.edu. Retrieved on September 11, 2009.
- ↑ Texas' Last Frontier: Fort Stockton and the Trans-Pecos. flipkart.com. Retrieved on September 11, 2009; no longer on-line.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 6.4 6.5 H. Allen Anderson. Ernest Wallace. Handbook of Texas: Texas State Historical Association. Retrieved on September 11, 2009.
- ↑ List of Horn Professors at Texas Tech University. swco.ttu.edu. Retrieved on September 13, 2009.
- ↑ Lubbock Avalanche-Journal, November 18, 1985.
