GNB
Provincial Archives of New Brunswick

Dictionary of Miramichi Biography

1,109 records available in this database
IntroductionIntroduction | Name IndexName Index | Occupation IndexOccupation Index | Organization IndexOrganization Index | Full-Text SearchFull-Text Search | The DictionaryThe Dictionary

LanguageLanguage
Page 1039 of 1109

jump to page
WALLACE, ISAIAH (1826-1907)

WALLACE, ISAIAH, Baptist minister, Newcastle, Whitneyville, and Little Southwest, 1858-60, and visiting evangelist; b. Coverdale parish, Albert Co., 17 Jan 1826, s/o the Rev. James Wallace and Susan Peck; m. 1857, Frances Elizabeth DeMille of Woodstock, N.B.; d. Aylesford, Kings Co., N.S., 24 Dec 1907.

Isaiah Wallace studied at the Baptist Seminary in Fredericton, where he was a close friend of Robert H. Emmerson. Afterwards, he taught school for two years and then resumed his studies at Acadia College (BA 1855, MA 1859). After his ordination he preached in Queens County and elsewhere in New Brunswick and served a year as acting principal of the Baptist Seminary. In 1858 he became the minister at Newcastle, Whitneyville, and Little Southwest. He stayed only two years, but he kept in contact with the Miramichi throughout his lifetime.

In 1860 Wallace took a church in Saint John. A year later he moved to Nova Scotia. He made his permanent home there, but his position as "roving evangelist" of the Baptist home mission board for a great many years took him to all parts of the Maritimes. In the course of his travels he was said to have baptized upwards of 3,000 converts and to have "clasped more hands,...warmed more hearts, and cheered more homes than any other minister of his day."

In 1885 Wallace conducted revival meetings on the Miramichi and baptized a number of persons, both at Whitneyville and in what he called the "romantic and beautiful settlement in the valley of the Little Southwest." He returned in the winter of 1889 and had his friend James A. Somers take him to preach in his lumber camps. On that visit he encouraged the erection of a church. This was built at Sillikers over the next two years, and he was on hand to participate in its dedication on 5 July 1891.

In 1903 Wallace published a chronicle of his life's work entitled Autobiographical Sketch with Reminiscences of Revival Work. In 1905 Acadia University conferred an honorary DD degree on him. He was survived in 1907 by his wife, Frances E. DeMille, two sons, both of whom were Baptist ministers, and a daughter, who was married to a minister.

Sources

[b] Wallace [m] Carleton Sentinel 2 May 1857 [d] Maritime Baptist 15 Jan 1908 / Acadia Record; Advance 16 Jul 1891; annual 1908; Kanner


4.11.1