James Wallace (8 April 1821 – 22 July 1885) was an Irish-American benefactor, best known for his major donations that led to the founding of

German Wallace College The history of Baldwin Wallace University dates back to 1828, when co-founder John Baldwin settled in present-day Berea, Ohio. His founding eventually established Baldwin–Wallace College. This founding of present-day Baldwin Wallace Universit ...

(1864–1913) and the present

Baldwin Wallace University Baldwin Wallace University (BW) is a private university in Berea, Ohio. It was founded in 1845 as Baldwin Institute by Methodist businessman John Baldwin. The school merged with nearby German Wallace College in 1913 to become Baldwin-Wallace C ...

Life

Wallace was born in

Ballinamore Ballinamore (, meaning "mouth of the big ford") is a small town in County Leitrim, Ireland. Etymology , corrupted ''Bellanamore'', means "town at the mouth of the big ford", so named because it was a main crossing (ford) of the Yellow River. T ...

County Leitrim County Leitrim ( ; gle, Contae Liatroma) is a county in Ireland. It is in the province of Connacht and is part of the Northern and Western Region. It is named after the village of Leitrim. Leitrim County Council is the local authority for the ...

, Ireland and died in Detroit, Wayne County, Michigan, US. He arrived in the US in 1846. He became a wealthy businessman, operating a stone quarry in Berea, Ohio. In the 1850s he gave land and money to the Baldwin Institute to fund the education of the local German workforce and establish teaching in German. The German department at the Baldwin Institute subsequently became the

in 1866. Wallace was the third mayor of

Berea, Ohio Berea ( ) is a city in Cuyahoga County in the U.S. state of Ohio and is a western suburb of Cleveland. The population was 19,093 at the 2010 census. Berea is home to Baldwin Wallace University, as well as the training facility for the Cleveland ...

(1853–54), and has been awarded a "Grindstone Heritage Award" by the town.

References

Baldwin Wallace University people 1821 births 1885 deaths 19th-century American businesspeople {{US-business-bio-stub