Western Illinois University

A Foundation for Sustainable Rural Community Development

Henry Wallace

Country Life Commission Member

Henry Wallace (“Uncle Henry”) was born in 1836 and raised on a farm in Pennsylvania. The “first” of three generations of Henry Wallaces finished his theological studies at Monmouth College in Illinois and taught school in Kentucky. He then came to Iowa as a minister, working in both Morning Sun and Davenport. In 1877, he resigned his ministry because of poor health and moved his family to Winterset. By then, he also owned three farms in Adair County.

While living in Winterset, Uncle Henry had his first taste of being a writer. He wrote a page on agriculture in the local paper and soon bought a newspaper of his own. From that time on, the Wallace family always had a place to air their views. He believed farming was the noblest work of humans. In 1883, he became the editor of Iowa Homestead. In 1895, he bought a little paper called Farm and Dairy. He was 60 when he founded the family paper, changing its name to Wallaces Farmer.

Uncle Henry originally planned to deal with problems of Iowa farmers. He started out to study Iowa farm problems and ended up pioneering crop rotation and crop fertilization to save farmland. He wrote about dairying, cultivating, and grass. He envisioned great improvements that could be made in farm life. Wallaces Farmer eventually grew into a national weekly publication that provided more than just farm news. It included a woman’s page and a weekly Sunday school lesson. Each week, the top of the paper carried the motto “Good Farming, Clear Thinking, Right Living.”

In 1895, Wallace served as one of twelve educators asked to study rural schools. The report from this committee was used as a resource for many years regarding rural school problems.

In 1908, when Uncle Henry was 70, President Theodore Roosevelt asked him to be on the Country Life Commission. Wallace was one of Iowa’s best loved citizens when he died in 1916. He left the Wallaces Farmer operation to his son, Henry C. Wallace, who later became Secretary of Agriculture and Vice President under Franklin D. Roosevelt. The paper started by Uncle Henry was used by three generations of Wallace family members as a voice of agriculture (Iowa Public Television).

The Wallaces were known as one of Iowa’s most famous farm families by the turn of the twentieth century. Three generations of men – each named Henry – became important agricultural leaders in the state and the nation.

Recommended Resources

Other Commission Members