WALLIS, James

Photo courtesy: Andrea Wallis Aven

Ann Bell Wallis, (1823-1900), wife of James. Photo courtesy: Andrea Wallis Aven

WALLIS, James. (Middleton-In-Teasdale, England, Sept. 25, 1813--Dubuque, IA, Dec. 31, 1898). In 1842 James Wallis left Middle-in-Teesdale, England, and came to the United States. Thomas Wallis, his brother, preceded him and had settled in Massillon, Ohio. James joined Thomas in Ohio. (1)

The voyage across the ocean took nine weeks. A nephew of John BELL was among the passengers. After a short visit with his brother Thomas, James visited the companion of his ocean voyage, who had settled near John Bell. There the young Englishman, James Wallis, met Ann Bell, the third child of John Bell. The visit of a week or two was followed by a second to see the girl that had captured his heart, even thought it meant a walk of thirty miles. (2)

So after a six week courtship with another thirty mile walk, James Wallis married Ann Bell (20 years old) February 18, 1843. A few weeks later the young couple left the Bell home at Sharon Center, Ohio, which had been established in 1833. With $30.00 they set out for Dubuque where two aunts and the oldest brother of the bride, John Bell, had settled. (3)

In 1843 James and Ann moved to Catfish (later called Rockdale), Iowa; then New Diggings, Wisconsin where the LEAD mines were flourishing. James worked the mines, Ann took in boarders - mostly miners. In 1844 Sarah Jane Wallis was born; the family moved to Whig, Wisconsin, northwest of Platteville. In 1845 John William WALLIS was born. (4)

The family moved back to New Diggings in 1846. James built their first home: a frame building with a large living room and two bedrooms. While in New Diggings, Ann Bell Wallis's sister, Sarah Bell, came from England. She met and married George Raw. (5)

James and his family moved in 1850 to Durango, Dubuque County, Iowa. They left the following year for Mineral Point, Wisconsin, to run a lead smelter. He also sold exchange for James Carter and Company, bankers of Galena, Illinois. (6)

On October 10, 1851 James Wallis became a naturalized citizen of the United States in Dubuque, IA. The family moved in 1857 from Mineral Point back to Rockdale, to manage a flour mill. They moved into a stone house on a high shelf overlooking CATFISH CREEK. (7)

By 1862 the flour mill did a thriving business, but Ann's older brother, John Bell (in Dubuque) was looking for a partner, so the family moved to Dubuque. James Wallis put the $8000 he had saved in the wholesale dry-goods house of JOHN BELL AND COMPANY, wholesale dealers in dry goods and notions at 445 Main Street. (8)

James and Ann Bell Wallis in their home, in the 1890s. Photo and research courtesy of Andrea Wallis Aven

In 1864 son John William Wallis ("Will") went to the CIVIL WAR. That troubled father and mother. Father said, 'When you are finished you are to come home. I have only two children and one at least must be at home' [sister Sarah Jane was teaching school]. (9)

Grandfather [James] Wallis was a lay preacher of the Methodist Church. The four Wallis boys [William Burton, |James Harold WALLIS, Joseph Allen, John Rider WALLIS were baptized by their grandfather. (10)

James Wallis wrote the letter below on 24 May 1895, to a fellow shipmate, William Hopper, from the ship Ann and Mary which sailed on 25 May 1842 from Stockton-on-Tees, County Durham, England, and arrived in New York City on 27 Jun 1842.

The letter includes the following (original wording and spelling):

               many incidents of the journey are very fresh in my mind to this day our several 
               mishaps our break downs the carpenter runing us into the Iceburgs through him 
               getting drunk as the vessel departed[?] and the great rejoicing when we landed 
               and the boatmen come on board and the singing

               On the Monday we took a steamer up the Hudson to Albany then on Eyery canal to 
               Buffalo on the Canal we hard work to get enough to eat

               We boarded on the boat and of course we were a hungry crew after living on hard 
               tack sea buiscut for many weeks.

               From Cleveland I took the Ohio Canal to Massillon where my Brother was they given 
               me up for lost never expected to hear or see me It was a wonder we ever got over 
               in the old tub of a vessel. I stayed one year in Ohio then come west which was then 
               wild west and here I am and likely to remain till I am taken to our beautifull Linwood 
               where we laid our son.

The house was originally numbered 96 Chestnut Street. It is now 632 Chestnut Street. After Sarah Wallis Winall's parents died (1898, 1900), and then her husband (See: Samuel Smith WINALL in 1901, Sarah and her children, Mary Beatrice Winall and James Wallis Winall, moved back to her family home at 96 Chestnut Street, now 632 Chestnut. By this time, S.S. Winall's children with his first wife, Ella Bird Winall, were married with families of their own. Beatrice Winall died in 1920, and Wallis Winall married Catherine Liebfried in 1936. They had no children. Catherine remained in the home after Wallis's death in 1962; she died in 1996. On the City of Dubuque website is a form from the Iowa State Historical Department, Division of Historic Preservation, of the Dubuque, Iowa 1978-1979 Architectural Survey. James and Ann Bell Wallis's property at 96 Chestnut Street (now 632) is listed, stating that he was the original owner/builder, along with this quote: “Special Significance: Wallis appears to have largely built up Chestnut Street single-handedly.” Photo and research courtesy: Andrea Wallis Aven

L to R: James Harold Wallis, William Burton Wallis, Mary Burton Wallis, John Rider Wallis, Joseph Allen Wallis, 4 Jan 1903, Dubuque. Her husband, John William "Will" Wallis died in 1847 when their youngest son, "Rider," was just 12 days old. Photo courtesy: Andrea Wallis Aven

L to R: Virginia Branner, Harold Wallis, (behind) Allen Wallis, (front) Sport the dog, Rider Wallis, Mary Burton Wallis, Grandfather James Wallis, Burton Wallis. Photo courtesy: Andrea Wallis Aven

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Source:

1. Wallis, John Rider (ed.) Winall, Sarah Wallis,The Aunty Winall Story (1924)

2. Ibid.

3. Ibid.

4. Ibid.

5. Ibid.

6. Oldt, Franklin T. History of Dubuque County, Iowa. Chicago: Western Company Company, 1880, p. 892. Online: http://members.tripod.com/~Doreen_3/DBIOU-Z.htm

7. Wallis.

8. Ibid.

9. Ibid.

10. Wallis, John Rider, Platt Smith 1813-1882 A Brief Biography; Notes From the Bonson Diary 1840-1854; Rambles Thru Linwood, History in a Graveyard, 1973

11. "Caught on the Fly," Dubuque Herald, July 9, 1880, p. 4. Online: https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=uh8FjILnQOkC&dat=18800709&printsec=frontpage&hl=en

Andrea Wallis Aven

James Kenline