Henry Wallace, called Uncle Henry by many, was a man who loved to preach about rural Iowa. His congregation was made up of friends, loved ones and other families in his area. Wallace grew up in Pennsylvania and went to seminary in Ohio, then was ordained a Presbyterian clergyman. Through the 1860s he traveled to Iowa in the Davenport area and did his preaching. Soon after he borrowed some money and bought a piece of land in Iowa, this is how he found his ability to sell land at a profit.
In 1877 he had to retire from ministry due to struggles with tuberculosis. In 1879 he started writing in the Winterset Chronicle on agricultural topics. In 1885, working out of Winterset, Wallace started writing for the Des Moines-based newspaper The Homestead. In 1985 Wallace resigned due to editorial differences. Wallace’s writings encouraged new farm practices, getting women and children more into the work as well. In 1908 President Theodore Roosevelt appointed him on the Country Life Commission. Both Henry’s son and grandson eventually became secretaries of agriculture under the Roosevelt and Harding administrations. Uncle Henry Wallace died from a stroke as he sat in a front pew waiting for a morning session to begin of a ministry convention in Des Moines. Many people loved and adored Henry Wallace, his writings and his preaching.
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