Person:William Wallace (116)

About William "Big Foot" Wallace

WALLACE-- William A. Wallace, known in American history as "Big Foot" Wallace, was born one mile south of Lexington, April 12, 1816. In the fall of 1837 he heard of the death of a brother at the hands of the Mexicans in the Fannin massacre. Leaving his plow and team in the field, he started at once for Texas on a mission of vengeance. He was accompanied by James Paxton and J. Frank Shields, the former dying in Texas. In the Texan army, Wallace was a lieutenant of rangers. He accompanied the Mier expedition and was captured, but by good fortune he drew a white bean, and thus escaped military execution. His captors called him the "Big Foot Gringo," and he was made to work a long while on the streets of the City of Mexico. Some time after his release he killed "Big Foot," a Lipan warrior, in single combat. Wallace made his home near San Antonio, but at length the region became too thickly settled to please him, and he went farther west. He visited Rockbridge in 1850 and again about 1872. He never married, and he died in Texas, January 8, 1899. Big Foot Wallace did not really have feet of unusual size, considering his stature, yet was conspicuous for immense shoulders and a very large head. He was a grandson of Colonel Samuel Wallace of the Revolutionary period. [Source: A History of Rockbridge County, Virginia, by Oren F. Morton, published in 1920].

1. ↑ ^1.0 1.1 Ancestry.com. Public Member Trees: (Note: not considered a reliable primary source).

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