Dr. William B. Wall Santa Ana, the first Treasurer of Orange County, was born near Danville, Virginia, in1890. His literary education he received at the common schools in Mississippi, and his medical education at Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia, where he graduated in 1853. He further attended lectures in New Orleans in 1854, and began the practice of his profession in Mississippi, where he built up a fine patronage; but on the breaking out of the war he entered the Confederate army, in the Twenty-third Mississippi Volunteer Infantry, and was Surgeon for the regiment. He was elected First Lieutenant, and subsequently Captain, and served as Surgeon until the close of the war, when he was surrendered under General Joseph E. Johnston.
He then followed his profession in Mississippi until 1875, when he came to California and bought land near Tustin, on which he planted orange trees and vines; and until the blight struck the grape and the scale the orange, Dr. Wall had the finest vineyard and orchard in Southern California. The neatness of his grounds and the fine quality of his fruits gave evidence of a horticulturist possessing superior knowledge and ability. Dr. Wall was elected County Treasurer at the first election in August, 1889, on the non-partisan ticket. He has held also other official relations. Politically he is an orthodox Democrat, and socially he is a Freemason, and religiously a zealous member of the Baptist Church. He is also secretary of the Orange County Medical Association.
He was first married in 1844, and had one daughter. In 1873 he married Mrs. Julia F. Norman, from North Carolina, and by this marriage there are two children, William and Pearl.