Poor Texas cowhand became one of area’s first millonaires

For his time, Daniel Webster Wallace was a phenomenon. He began driving cattle along a Texas trail in 1875 as a 15-year-old penniless cowboy, and died in 1939 with a ranch-based estate reported to be worth more than $1 million. One of the houses he built in Nolan County on his 12-section ranch that extended into Mitchell County is now among the historic structures at the National Ranching Heritage Center in Lubbock. Schools and other government facilities have borne his name in Colorado City. He was favored in the eyes of the 19th century ranchers, and seemed always to be in the right place at the right time. But if he ever squandered even one of the breaks he was given, it isn’t recorded. His integrity was legendary. Mary Wallace, as a slave, had been purchased in 1860 by Mary O’Daniel three months before Webster was born. His mother had a bit of education, and became a servant and confidante to O’Daniel, who also was the mother of an infant son. Mary Wallace attended both children in the O’Daniel home in Victoria County...read more