Biographies - Dr. David Richard Wallace

             Doctor David Richard Wallace, at present (1889) is the Superintendent of the Branch State Lunatic Asylum at Terrell, Texas, to which position he was appointed by Governor John Ireland in 1883. He filled the position of Superintendent of the State Lunatic Asylum at Austin from 1874 to 1879, with great satisfaction to the administration and credit to himself.

             Dr. Wallace is the son of Warren Wallace and Phoebe Powell, and was born in Pitt county, North Carolina, November 10, 1825. He received a thorough literary and classical education at Wake Forest College in that State, from which institution he graduated with first honors in the year 1850. Choosing the profession of medicine, for which his education eminently qualified him, he began the study in 1852, in New Hanover county, near Wilmington, under the careful instruction of Dr. S. S. Satchwell, an eminent practitioner of that place. Having prepared himself for matriculation at college, he entered the medical department of the University of New York, taking the regular course of lectures; after which he took a summer course at the Philadelphia Medical College in '53; returning to N. Y. University the following year, 1854, he attended the second course, and was graduated M. D. from that institution that year. Returning to his home in North Carolina be begun the practice of medicine; but being impressed with the belief that there was a wider and better field for a future career in the new West, he immigrated to Texas in 1855, settling at the town of Independence, Washington county. He practiced medicine in Washington county until the year 1860, when he removed to Waco. Here he did a general practice from 1865 to 1874, giving, however, special attention to nervous diseases and psychiatry. To this branch of medicine he has since devoted much study. Before leaving North Carolina (1854) the Wake Forest College conferred upon him the degree of A. M., and the Waco University, in 1878, honored him with that of L. L. D.

             Dr. Wallace served throughout the war between the States as Surgeon.

             He takes an active interest in the work of the organized medical profession, attending and contributing to the meetings of the several societies; being a member of the American Medical Association, the Texas State Medical Association, the Central Texas Medical Society, the North Texas Medical Society, the Waco Medical Society, the Kaufman County Medical Society, etc. He is also a member of the Association of Superintendents of American Institutions for the Insane. At the hands of the medical profession Dr. Wallace has received the highest honors, he having been President of the Texas State Medical Association the third year after its organization, to wit: in June, 1871. In the organization he was one of the first movers, participating in the first meeting held for the purpose, and at most of the subsequent meetings. He was also Vice-President of the State Medical Association, (elected at the organization); President of the Waco Medical Society; member of the Judicial Council of the American Medical Association, etc. At the meeting of the State Association at Fort Worth, Dr. Wallace was appointed on a committee to inquire into the expediency of organizing a Physicians' Mutual Benefit Association and submitted a report. This was the first move in that direction; nothing came of it, however. He has ever been a zealous advocate of a high standard of medical education and a strict adherence to the code of medical ethics. As a writer Dr. Wallace is chaste and classical, but not voluminous. Some of his best productions are published in the yearly Transactions of the State Medical Association. Amongst them his address as President; and a report on Misasmatic Haematuria; this paper was also published in Gaillard's Medical Journal the same year it appeared in the Transactions, (1874,) and re-published by that journal ten years later. Besides these, Dr. Wallace has contributed other papers, which were published in the Transactions.

             In 1857, May 28th, Dr. Wallace was married to Miss A. M. Daniel, of McLennan county, and to her sister, Mrs. S. L,. Roberts, September 24th, 1871. He has three married daughters, all living in Texas,—Mrs. Geo. W. Tyler, of Belton; Mrs. R. B. Dupree, of Marlin, and Mrs. Wm. Brenstedt, of Waco.

             We publish herewith a portrait of the subject of this sketch, from a photograph taken recently. In social and professional intercourse Dr. Wallace is characterized by a genial and courteous manner and a dignified bearing, well becoming his years and the honors he has so well won.