WALLACE, Deterich - Fountain County INGenWeb Project

The following sketch of Mr. Wallace’s life was prepared and read at the funeral by F. Hugh Miller.  Veedersburg’s senior citizen, Diederich H. Wallace, is here memorialized today after passing from the labors and achievements of an unusually long human span, lacking only two months and 18 days of reaching his 102nd anniversary.  Mr. Wallace, long known as the dean of local business men was the oldest member of the First Christian Church, having become a member under the pastorage of Rev. Harry A. Davis many years back.  He came here from Yeddo in 1889 and purchased what had been the town’s first drug store, which he operated until 1940, when he retired from that business, but remained a stockholder and director of the Veedersburg State Bank and the Veedersburg Building & Loan Association until his death came on Friday Jan 3, 1958 in the Vermilion Nursing Home in Danville, Illinois.  The preceding words touch only a few high points in the human activities of this extraordinary man.  They hint only of the strength of character and integrity of the inner man.  His high standards of honestly, loyalty and humility combined with thrift, indomitable energy and civic consciousness, marked the stature of the man who had come as an immigrant from Germany in 1882 to work at hard physical labor, seeking fortune in a new land.  Diederich Herman Wohlers was born near the village of Altenfeld, Kingdom of Hanover, Germany March 21, 1856 to Frederich and Dorothy Wohlers. His father died when the boy was six and two years later his mother married Wilhelm Huchenmeyer. At age 14, Diederich was apprenticed to a farmer at $9 a year plus board, room and clothing.  The third year, when his wage had reached $18 a year, Diederich quit and went to work in the German telephone service.  He spent three years in the army starting at 7 cents a day and finishing as a Lt. at 75 cents a day.  His step-father’s sister who lived at Crete, Ill had visited Germany and told of the many opportunities here. The young man stoked his way to America on a North German Lloyd steamer and looked over Hoboken, NJ and New York.  He thought the outlook good despite its strangeness. Stoking his way back to Germany, he obtained her personal belongings and stroked his way back to America again, did some railroad construction work and the first winter worked in the coal mines at Antrim, PA at $1.50 a day and saved $200 for a time he worked for a house mover in Chicago and was advised he could find work in the Mines near Yeddo, Ind where he resumed digging coal.  In Yeddo, he boarded in the home of the late Dr. FA Shoaf who encouraged the young immigrant. Dr. Shoaf acquired the village drug store and persuaded Diedrich to change his name to Wallace in  his naturalization papers and to become a partner in the drug store.  Here Diederich learned his pharmacopeia and became sole owner of the store about 1885.  He had saved $1000 and in 1888 having sold the store, he visited Germany as an American citizen.  On his return in 1889, he purchased what had been Veedersburg’s first drug store. After 11 years in the Nixon BUildng, he bought the three story brick building at the northwest corner of Main and Second Streets where he remained until hre tired as a druggist in 1940.  Mr. Wallace first married Mollie D. Cox of Fairmount, Ill who had been a school teacher in Yeddo. She passed on in 1901 after a surgical operation leaving a baby daughter, Dorothy Elizabeth.  In 1902, Mr. Wallace married Anna Brown Myer of the Ingersoll Corner neighborhood and she reared the infant daughter as though her own child.  The Wallaces were active in social, religious and civic affairs. Mrs. Wallace died of a heart ailment in 1942 after which Mr. Wallace had housekeepers and then for several years spent his winters in hotels and nursing homes. On March 21, 1956, Mr. Wallace reached his 100th birthday at the Wayne Hotel where he received the congratulations of hundred of friends in person and many more by mail.  He continued to come to Veedersburg to attend director’s meetings of the bank and Building and Loan Association until a little over a year ago. He continued his membership in the Christian Church and the Knights of Pythias.  At one time he lived at the Pythian Home in Lafayette but his heart remained in his hometown.  In Germany he had been reared in the Lutheran Church and he never lost his respect for that faith.  He always valued the military training he received in Germany and he was disappointed when rejected by the United States Army in the Spanish-American War as too old at 42.  He was, however, selected to drill the local unit of the Uniformed Rank of the Knights of Pythias at the turn of the century.  Among his civic activities were numerous Commercial Club projects, including the gift of the park to Veedersburg and he also was a founder of Rockfield Cemetery which he directed for many years.  He also served Veedersburg for 16 years as town treasurer. As the years passed his tall and rugged frame bowed some, what, his vision dimmed but his courageous spirit carried on as he lived to enjoy the effects of his own achievements; as he saw the community and enterprises with which he had been associated grow and prosper; and his daughter became an expert chemist and administrator serving the nation through its Atomic Energy Commission.  His labors had indeed borne much fruit and he had earned life’s spiritual rewards.  – kbz

Danville, Ill. - Deterich H. Wallace, 101, Veedersburg, Ind., died Friday in a nursing home here. Wallace, a native of Germany, operated a Veedersburg drug store 65 years until his retirement about 17 years ago.

VEEDERSBURG — Deterich H. Wallace, who would have been 102 years old March 21, died at 2 p. m. Friday in the Vermillion County Nursing Home at Danville, Ill., where he had been a patient since last October. Prior to that time he spent several winters at the Waynetown Hotel but maintained his home on N. Newlin St. in Veedersburg. Mr. Wallace, who once replied to a friend's inquiry as to what he attributed his longevity, "Hard work and plenty of it," operated a drug store in Veedersburg for 65 years. At the time of his death he was still a stockholder and director of the Veedersburg State Bank and the Building & Loan. A native of Altenfeld, Germany, he was born in 1856 to Freiderich and Dorothea Wohlers. He came to this country as a young man of 26. He lived in Pennsylvania for a brief period, then went to Chicago to work. While there he learned that Yeddo needed a drug store. Mr. Wallace moved to Yeddo and operated a drug store there for six years. He moved to Veedersburg In 1889, conducting the business until frail health forced his retirement 17 years ago. Mr. Wallace, who as a young man had to return to Germany and serve a hitch in the army, became a naturalized American citizen in the 1880s. He was a member of the Veedersburg Christian Church and Knights of Pythias Lodge and was one of those instrumental in starting the Rockfield Cemetery which the lodge sponsored. Mr. Wallace also was prominent for years in civic affairs. He was twice married. To the first union, with Mollie D. Cox, a daughter was born. Mrs. Wallace died in May 1901, and he later was wed to Anna Brown Myer, who died in February, 1942. The surviving daughter is Miss Dorothy Wallace of Lagrange, Ill., who visited her father Christmas Eve but was in Washington, D, C. at the time of his death. She is flying back. Mr. Wallace had visited Germany frequently while relatives there were yet living. He made 11 Atlantic crossings. Funeral services have been set for 2 p. m. Sunday at the Christian Church with Rev. George Mitchell officiating. Burial will be in Rockfield Cemetery. Friends may call at the Fishero Funeral Home. The daughter has requested there be no flowers.   --typed by Walt W