Since 1908 Arthur C. Wallace has been identified with the Miami bar and in the intervening period of thirteen years he has become well known throughout Oklahoma as an authority on mining, railroad and corporation law, having been entrusted with much important litigation along those lines.
He was born upon a farm near Grace Hill, in Washington County, Iowa, February 20, 1882, his parents being Dr. George C. and Mary E. (Miksch) Wallace, both of whom were natives of Ohio. As a young man the father removed to Iowa, and his professional training was acquired in a medical college at Keokuk, that state. He engaged in practice at Rock Rapids, Iowa, and is still a resident of that place, but the mother is deceased.
The second in order of birth in a family of five children, Arthur C. Wallace acquired his early education in the grammar and high schools of his native city, after which he became a student in the University of Iowa, from which he received the B. S. degree in 1906, while two years later he received the degree of LL. B. from that institution on the completion of a course in law. In the same year he came to Miami, where he has since successfully followed his profession, specializing in mining, railroad and corporation law, on which branches of jurisprudence he is exceptionally well informed. He spends much time in the department of the interior at Washington, D. C., in connection with leases, titles and mining matters and has been retained as counsel in all of the important mining litigation in northeastern Oklahoma, winning many verdicts favorable to the interests of his clients.
He is a close student, an untiring worker, and his legal learning, his analytical mind and the readiness with which he grasps the points in an argument all combine to make him one of the most capable lawyers in this part of the state. He has ever maintained the highest standards of professional ethics, and with the passing years his practice has steadily grown in volume and importance, having now assumed extensive proportions.
In addition to his professional activities he is a director of the Miami Building & Loan Association and is also serving as vice president of the Rockdale Country Club District Association, which purchased a tract of land, placing upon it all modern improvements and converting it into one of the finest and most exclusive residential sections of the city, the country club being situated upon the property.
On the 14th of June, 1911, Mr. Wallace was married at Campbell, Missouri, to Miss Grace Van Matre, a graduate of the Missouri State Normal School and previous to her marriage a successful teacher of Miami. Her father, Dr. Van Matre, served under General Sherman in the Civil war and after the close of hostilities engaged in the practice of medicine at Campbell, Missouri. Two children have been born of this union: John R., whose birth occurred on the 24th of November, 1913; and Mary Grace.
Mr. and Mrs. Wallace are members of the Presbyterian church, and she is prominent in social circles of Miami. During the world war. Mr. Wallace served as government appeal agent for Ottawa county in connection with the draft board and he also delivered many public addresses in behalf of war activities. He is a stanch republican in his political views, but owing to his extensive professional interests has never been an active worker in the ranks of the party. He is a member of the Chamber of Commerce and deeply interested in its movements to further the material development of the city, while his social nature finds expression in his connection with the University Club of Washington, D. C., and the Rockdale Country Club.
He finds needed recreation in golf, being an enthusiastic devotee of the sport, and fraternally he is identified with the Masons, belonging to Miami Lodge, No. 140, F. & A. M., of which he has been secretary, while he is also connected with Miami Lodge, No. 1320, B. P. O. E., of which he is a past exalted ruler. A man of notable intellectual attainments, it seems that he has entered upon the profession for which nature intended him, for in his chosen calling he has made steady progress and has carved his name high on the keystone of the legal arch of the state.