The grandfather I and my cousins knew, the father my mother and her siblings knew, and the husband my grandmother knew did not have a family; no parents or grandparents, no siblings, no aunts or uncles or cousins. If he knew the truth about his family, he did not share that truth with anyone. 

When pressed about his past, James told the family that he was born October 19, 1913, in either Harlingen, Texas or Long Beach, California. He was a young child when his parents, Henry Wallace and Helen House, died in a car accident. He also said he lived in a boys’ home in San Antonio, Texas, and lived with aunts in California and at other times in San Antonio. Also, according to James, he left home when he was a teenager and joined the Merchant Marines, although no record was found confirming his time in the Merchant Marines. There is no indication that he had contact with his family after he left home.

Some of the information he provided about his childhood has been confirmed by research. However, some information he provided is either not accurate or it could not be confirmed by records or other circumstantial information.

Research indicates that James was most likely born in 1916, and it is possible his birth month was October.  Research also indicates that James was most likely born in Harlingen, Cameron County, Texas.  No record has been found to confirm neither his exact date of birth nor his location of birth; however, the 1930 federal census record does show his age as 14 and he was born in Texas.  

No record was found to confirm that James lived in a boys’ home in San Antonio. No record was found that James lived with Helen after the age of four. The only record showing James living with anyone in his family is the 1930 federal census. It enumerates James in the household of Margaret House (Helen’s sister) and her husband Charles Alexander. At that time, James was fourteen. One of Helen’s sisters, Irene, did live in California and Helen did live with her on at least one occasion.

James indicated on his application for enlistment in the Coast Guard that he attended Beacon Hill grammar school in San Antonio for seven years. He also attended “one year and a half term” at Longfellow High School in Long Beach, California.

Research indicates that James did leave home sometime around 1933, at the age of seventeen. That year was a defining one for James as a teenager entering manhood. He left home for a reason unknown to anyone but himself.  Not much is known about James in the seven years after he left home.  His Coast Guard records show he worked on fishing boats and dredge boats beginning in 1933.  It was during this time that James began working for J.L. Fletcher, captaining Mr. Fletcher’s charter boat called The Escape. He took fishermen to Mexico, the Florida Keys, into the Caribbean, and all over the Gulf of Mexico.

In November 2017, I was casually searching on Ancestry.com for information about James. I happened to run across a gentleman who was researching the House family in Harlingen and San Antonio.  As I was looking through his House family tree and reviewing documents, I came across a photograph of two little boys. They were identified as “Thomas Forsyth and Jack Wallace, cousins”.

I immediately sent a message to this gentleman, Mr. Forsyth, and outlined everything I knew about James. He wrote back the next day as excited about my message as I was about finding the picture of James. He said the other little boy in the picture was his father, Thomas Forsyth (formerly Thomas James Bittner), and Jack Wallace (a/k/a James) was Thomas’ cousin. He said Jack and his father Thomas were very close when they were growing up and they spent a lot of time together. He confirmed that Jack’s mother was Helen House. He also said that his father told him that Jack disappeared when they were teenagers and the family never knew what happened to him. They believed he had died since he never contacted the family. Mr. Forsyth said he spent a great deal of time looking for information about Jack Wallace but never found anything about him, until my message to him. After reading my message and comparing it to what he knows about Helen House and “Jack”, he also believes that his father’s cousin, Jack Wallace, and my grandfather, James Bishop Wallace, are the same person. He believes James was probably born in 1916, and not 1913, because the two little boys in the picture look to be the same age. He said his father was born in 1916. That also fits with the information in the 1930 Census Record as well as other research findings.  Unfortunately, neither James nor his cousin Thomas lived long enough to be reunited in this life.  Maybe they have been reunited in the afterlife.

Mr. Forsyth died in July 2023, and I am forever thankful for his research, his correspondence, and his willingness to help me connect the dots between his Jack and our James.  He was kind and generous.

After more research, I was able to find information about Helen House and her husband, Henry Wallace. This research also indicates that James might not have lived with his mother, and certainly did not live with her after she married Henry Wallace. Research indicates that James’ childhood was unstable and chaotic. 

The information I found about Henry Wallace gave me some insight into James’ childhood. It also provided a possible reason he left when he was a teenager. In 1917, when Henry Wallace registered for the draft, the registrar wrote on his draft card. “Gambler. Won’t work. Mother boards him.” This must have been common knowledge in his very small hometown of Woodson, Texas. The registrar thought it was important to include that character description of Henry on his draft card. A few years after James left San Antonio, Henry Wallace was committed to the VA Neuro-Psychiatric Hospital in Waco, Texas. He was diagnosed with “psychosis with psychopathic personality.” He died a year after he was admitted. 

Now to discover James’ father.