Lawyers and Lawmakers of Kentucky, by H. Levin, editor, 1897. Published
by Lewis Publishing Company, Chicago.  Reprinted by Southern Historical
Press.  p. 64.  Woodford County.

CALEB WALLACE, judge of the court of appeals of Kentucky, was born in
1742, in Luenburg, now Charlotte county, Virginia, and died in Woodford
county, Kentucky, in 1814.  He was descended from clan Wallace, of the
highlands of Scotland.  The emigrant to America from whom he traces his
lineage was Peter Wallace, whose wife was also a Scot,--Elizabeth Woods
by name.  Peter Wallace settled in the back woods of Virginia, near
Stanton, about 1734, with his family of four children, three sons and one
daughter.  Samuel Wallace, a son of Peter, was the progenitor of the
family in Kentucky.  The will of Samuel Wallace, of Rockbridge county,
Virginia, was probated at Lexington, the 4th of April, 1786, and its
maker was possibly a nephew of the Samuel Wallace who came to Kentucky
in 1782 with his family,--a wife and three children.  Caleb Wallace was
the eldest of the family.  His mother was Esther (Baker) Wallace,
about whose ancestry little is recorded.
     The home of the Wallaces was in a Presbyterian settlement, known
as Cub Creek, and its early advantages were probably limited, when Caleb
Wallace, at the age of twenty-five, concluded to see a higher career
than the precincts of that village afforded him.  He entered and made
his way through Princeton College in three and a half years.  His home
influences were all of a staid, substantial and religious character,
and it is believed that he joined the church when about fifteen years
of age.  As an example of what our fathers did and how they provided for
contingencies, the following certificate, which Caleb Wallace carried
with him when he left the paternal roof of the Cub Creek home, is a
matter of interest; the signer was the pastor of the Presbyterian flock,
himself a graduate of Princeton College, of the class of 1851.  The
paper read:

     These are to certife all Christian People to whom these Presents
shall come that I have been acquainted with Caleb Wallace, the bearer
hereof since he was Boy, and he hath always Sustained a moral Character
and is going from home free from any publick Scandal or liable to any
Church censure known to me, and hath been a Partaker of Sealing
Ordinances, and my therefore be received as a Member into any Christian
Congregation or Society where Providence may Order his Lot.
     Dated at Cub Creek in Charlotte county, Virginia, April 6, 1767.
                                        Robert Henry

     The home influence, his early training and habits of mind made him
turn toward the ministry, and on graduating at Princeton, in October,
1771, he offered himself to the presbytery in order "to enter upon
Tryalls as a Candidate for the Gospel Ministry."  He was a theological
pupil of Dr. Witherspoon at Princeton, and while there was the intimate
of James Madison, later president of the United States.  He was licensed
to preach May 28, 1772, and after filling mission stations he was
regularly called and ordained as the minister of Cub Creek church October
13, 1774.  Previous to this, about April, 1774, he married his cousin,
Sarah McDowell, the daughter of Samuel and Mary (McClung) McDowell, and
granddaughter of Magdaline Wood, who was a sister of Elizabeth Wood, wife
of Peter Wallace.  Her younger brother became the celebrated surgeon, Dr.
Ephraim McDowell.  His wife died in 1775 or '6, and on May 11, 1779, he
married Rosanna Christian, sister of Colonel William Christian, who
married the sister of Patrick Henry, and removed to Roanoke to take charge
of a church there.  Alexander Scott Bullitt married a daughter of Colonel
William Christian.  The family history involves connection with the
Christians, McDowells, Bullitts and Wallaces, but, while interesting, it
is impossible to give a detailed account of same.  Judge Wallace's second
wife died December 4, 1804, and he afterward married Mrs. Mary Brown, of
Frankfort, who survived him until 1836.
     Caleb Wallace was appointed a member of a commission for the
adjudication of western accounts; the members were appointed by the
governor and his council in July, 1781, and Mr. Wallace was appointed to
fill a vacancy caused by a resignation about October, 1782, his father
and brother being also of the commission.  He was sent as the
representative of the county to the Virginia legislature.  His service
was brief, but he secured legislation whereby was founded Transylvania
University, and as the author of the measure is entitled to credit.  It
vests certain escheated lands in the hands of trustees for the benefit
of the school.  At the May term of the general assembly of 1782, a
supreme court of the district of Kentucky was provided.  John Todd was
nominated for chief justice and Walker Daniel for attorney.  Colonel Todd
met his death at Blue Licks before assuming his office.  John Floyd and
Harry Innes were named as associate judges.  Innes declined the
appointment as associate judge and after the announcement of the death of
Colonel Todd he was appointed chief justice and Samuel McDowell was made
associate justice, his commission being accepted by letter dated December
22, 1782.  The first session of the court was held by Samuel McDowell and
John Floyd at Harrodsburg, and the seat of holding the court was
transferred to Danville.  Colonel John Floyd was killed by the Indians
April 12, 1783, and July 2, 1783, Caleb Wallace as appointed in his
place.  In November, 1783, Judge McDowell and Wallace held court at
Danville.  Walker Daniel, the attorney for the district, was killed by
Indians, July 12, 1784, and Colonel Innes resigned as chief justice and
was appointed to the vacant attorneyship.  On the 5th of January, 1785,
Cyrus Griffin was appointed chief justice, but resigned October 31, 1785.
There is no record of Griffin's presence in Kentucky.  On the 15th of
November, 1785, the court's personnel was again completed by the
appointment of Colonel George Muter as chief justice and he held his
office until the court was abolished by the adoption of a state
constitution in 1792.
     Caleb Wallace's name appears on record as a member of several of
the associations which antedate the formation of the state; of the
convention of 1792, which drafted the constitution, and was one of the
electors at large in the presidential contest of 1796, voting for Mr.
Jefferson.  He was thoroughly in accord with John Breckenridge, who was
his personal friend and endorsed the celebrated 1798 resolution as his
political faith.
     He, with Harry Innes (and afterward George Muter) and Benjamin
Sebastian, constituted the first court of appeals of Kentucky.  At the
October term of the court of appeals in 1795, the case of Kenton versus
McConnell, in which George Nicholas appeared for the defendant, was
adjudicated and a decision was pronounced by a divided court in favor of
McConnell.  It was obtained by a process of reasoning which involved the
validity of the titles that had been given by the commissioners under the
Virginia land law in the years 1779 and 1780.  The titles awarded by those
commissioners had been regarded hiterto as among the most meritorious in
existence; their validity has also been specially conceded by decisions of
the supreme court of the district of Kentucky.
     Now that the right to open and review any decision made by the
Virginia commissioners had been conceded by the highest tribunal, there
was a general feeling of disquietude, and the greatest hardships fell
on those who were the earliest immigrants.  Colonel Nicholas was accused
of exerting undue influence and of even having made preparation for this
condition by ingrafting upon the state constitution of 1792 a provision
to the effect that the court of appeals should have original and final
jurisdiction of all cases where titles to landed estate was involved.
Judges Muter and Sebastian adopted the views expressed by Colonel Nicholas
and awarded his client judgment; Judge Wallace filed a dissenting opinion.
The excitement following the filling of these two opinions was very great
and indeed bordered upon anarchy.  The legislature was appealed to with
memorial and remonstrance and on the 19th of December, 1795, an attempt
was made to removed Judges Muter and Sebastian by address to the governor.
The address, however, failed, not having received the two-thirds majority
required, but the warning which the judges had received of the spirit of
the people induced them to grant a rehearing of the cause, and in May,
1796, Judge Muter reversed his opinion and joined Judge Wallace.
     Judge Wallace continued to serve upon the court-of-appeals bench
until 1813, when he resigned, having been in constant service on the bench
from 1792, a period of nearly twenty-one years.  Having been on the bench
of the supreme court of the district for nine years previous, his record
of constant service on the highest courts of the Kentucky district and the
state, covers a period of thirty years, and has not been equaled by any
one since that time.  Judge William Logan, who was his associate judge
from 1810 to 1820, was his son-in-law.
     He was a member of the earliest Presbyterian church that was opened
in Kentucky, and contributed a noteworthy share toward the establishment
of Presbyterianism in the west.  He was also an interested and active
participant in all that concerned the welfare of Transylvania University,
of which he was for many years a trustee.

Wallace Woods Baker Witherspoon McClung Wood McDowell Innes Muter
Christian Henry Bullitt Brown Henry Todd Daniel Floyd Griffin Logan
Breckenridge Sebastian Nicholas McConnell
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