Collect Day #9 FREEMAN WALLACE
Almighty God, protector of those who are persecuted: Open our eyes to the value of those like Freeman Wallace, who despite volunteering and serving in the army for five years during the revolutionary war, was kept from life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness due to his race; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.
DAY #9, March 15, 2019
EXETER, NH
FREEMAN WALLACE (c. 1824 – 1916)
Deborah Knowlton
In the fall of 1907, The Exeter Newsletter ran a photo of a solitary, gray-bearded Black man, dressed in a dark three-piece suit, black bow tie, and straw hat with silk ribbon. That man was Freeman Wallace, one of at least seven Black Civil War veterans from Exeter. Freeman holds a large splint oak basket and a long pole with a sharp iron tip; he used them for his job, picking up litter.
Freeman’s family resided in Exeter for generations. Caesar Wallace, his grandfather, was brought “from beyond the seas at the age of five years.” In 1777, Caesar enlisted in the army at Newbury, MA, and served until 1783, when his discharge papers were signed by George Washington. He soon married Katy Duce of Exeter, daughter of Bob Duce, another enlisted man. Shortly after their marriage, Katy and Caesar were warned out of Exeter. Caesar tried farming but he owned just one cow and no property at the time of his death in Gilmanton in the late 1820s.
Caesar and Katy’s ‘s son, George, married Dorothy Paul and settled in Exeter. They had two sons, Freeman and James. George did not fare much better than his father. By 1831, unable to support his family, he placed his wife and children on the town farm to look for work. George joined his family in the almshouse in 1835. Residents of the almshouse describe Freeman’s mother, Dolly, as “a cripple unable to do much work” and her then seven-year old son Freeman as “a troublesome boy.”
The Wallace boys grew up and enlisted for the Civil War, Freeman in the navy and James in the army.
Despite his poor and troubled childhood, Freeman made a place and a name for himself in Exeter. He wintered in Philadelphia, and friends eagerly awaited his homecoming, claiming he was their harbinger of spring. His fellow citizens, however, never publicly acknowledged the difficulties he must have endured living on the salary of a street cleaner. Rather, they celebrated his patriotism, his birthdays, his Grand Army of the Republic membership, and his neighborliness, describing him as “a genial, worthy man, highly esteemed by fellow veterans and citizens alike.” He is buried in the Exeter cemetery alongside his brother, James.
