Samuel J. Wallace, M.D., the well-known physician of Castine, Hancock County, and a Civil War veteran, was born in Wallaceville, near Easton, Pennsylvania, May 27, 1839, son of Samuel and Elizabeth (Candy) Wallace. The father, a native of the same place, which was so named in his honor, and a millwright by trade, built mills there. Besides considerable property in the town he owned an island in the Delaware River, which he connected with the shore by a suspension bridge. He was a man of large stature and powerful physique. His death, which occurred in the prime of life, was caused by an accident that befell him while repairing his gristmill. He was twice married. Samuel J. was the only child of his second marriage. The children of his first wife were a son and a daughter.
Samuel J. Wallace acquired his early education in the public schools of Philadelphia. In 1861 he enlisted in Company A, Twenty-sixth Regiment, Pennsylvania Volunteers. Entering the service as an Orderly Sergeant, he served for eighteen months, He was twice wounded, once quite severely in the leg at the second battle of Bull Run, and was for some time confined to the hospital in Washington. While in Washington he met his half-brother, James, who after their father’s death went to Ohio, and had not been heard from since 1843. James had been wounded in the arm while serving as Lieutenant in an Ohio regiment, and the surgeons were about to amputate the limb when Samuel made a vigorous protest. Though ordered out of the room, he was undismayed, and sought the aid of Secretary Stanton, who refused to interfere; but an appeal to President Lincoln resulted in securing for his brother a furlough of one month. Three weeks after, James Wallace stopped in Washington while on the way to rejoin his regiment, to personally thank the President for his kindness. On that occasion the President was so well pleased with his patriotic zeal that he gave him a Lieutenant Colonel’s commission. James was afterward killed at the battle of Cold Harbor. When the war ended, Samuel J. Wallace studied medicine at the Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia. He first came to Castine in 1877, and since 1881 has resided here permanently, practicing his profession with success, and also carrying on the drug business.
Dr. Wallace married Lucy V. Little, a daughter of Otis and Abigail (Perkins) Little, by both of whom she is a descendant of pioneer settlers in this locality. She is the mother of three children — Edward Otis, Lucy Kate, and Joseph Dickinson Wallace, aged respectively eighteen, fifteen, and twelve years. The Doctor is interested in everything relating to his profession, and belongs to the Hancock County Medical Society. For seven years he was the president of the Board of United States Pension Examiners and the secretary for one year. He is a member of the Masonic order, the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, the Improved Order of Red Men, and the Order of Good Fellows; is Court Physician of the United Order of Foresters; Past Grand Commander of the Sovereign Patriotic Knights; Past Commander of Charles L. Stevens Post, No. 76, G. A. R., of which he is now Surgeon; and he formerly belonged to the Knights of Pythias. His first Presidential vote was cast for Abraham Lincoln in 1860, and in 1896 he supported the candidacy of William J. Bryan. He is a strong sympathizer with the Cubans in their struggle for independence, and believes that they should be allowed to establish their own government. He thinks that where Admiral Dewey planted the Flag of Freedom there it should remain, and that Spain is unfit to govern in any part of the world.
Source: Biographical review: containing life sketches of leading citizens of Somerset, Piscataquis, Hancock, Washington, and Aroostook counties, Maine. Boston: Biographical Review Publishing Company, 1898.