James M. Wallace

Who was James M. Wallace?

James M. Wallace was a member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Pennsylvania.

Wallace was born in Hanover Township, Pennsylvania. He pursued preparatory studies in Philadelphia, and participated in the American Revolutionary War as a member of Capt. James Roger’s, Col. Timothy Green’s, and Capt. William Brown’s companies, and at the close of the war was major of a battalion of Associators. He commanded a company of rangers in defense of the frontier in 1779. He became major of the Dauphin County Militia in 1796. He was one of the commissioners of the county from 1799 to 1801, and a member of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives from 1806 to 1810.

Wallace was elected as a Republican to the Fourteenth Congress to fill the vacancy caused by the declination of Amos Ellmaker to serve. He was reelected to the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Congresses. He declined to be a candidate for renomination and retired to his farm. He died near Hummelstown, Pennsylvania. Interment in the Old Derry Church Graveyard, Derry, Pennsylvania.