Wallace Clinton Burnham

Wallace Clinton Burnham was born June 30, 1858 in Payson, Utah to Wallace Kendall and Philinda Standley Burnham.

Early Life

Soon after the birth of Wallace, the Burnham family moved to Richmond in 1860. In 1867, Wallace's mother died, which made Wallace have to take on more chores than normal. 

"When I was about nine years old, or a little past, my mother died leaving five children. I was the oldest. The others were James Lewis, Alvira Maria, Alva Freeman and Clara. Whatever I may have accomplished in life, I attribute to mother's anxiety, motherly love, and the caution she gave me on her death bed. She called each one of us that could understand. We came and stood by her bedside. She told us that she was going away and she told me that there would be a great deal for me to do as I was the oldest. She said 'you will have to help in the house. And try to do what is right because what you do the others will do, and what you say the others will do and say.'"1

Carpentry Occupation

In 1875, Wallace began an apprenticeship with Christian Hans Monson.

"I made a contract with Brother Monson in 1875 in which I was to go to school in the winter and work with him In the summer. I was to stay five years. But in the agreement was a provision that if either of us was called on a mission it would release us from our obligation. Three years later Brother Monson was called on a mission to Scandinavia. ...I followed up my trade after Brother Monson left on his mission until he came back. His son and I worked together side by side for two or three years. "1

Family

Wallace married Anna Christine Hansen Oct 12, 1878 in the Endowment House in Salt Lake City, Utah. They had nine children, which she died while giving birth to their final child on Oct 4, 1899 in Richmond.

"I kept the family at home and raised them and we got along very well. I believe it was a schooling because it put within me a firm determination to do the right thing as I saw it and to encourage others to do the same. And no matter where I have been, in any kind of society, I have tried to do the best I knew. Sometimes my associates would say, "Take a drink to be sociable" or "Take a smoke to be sociable". I never could become converted to the fact that you have to do things of that character to be sociable. 

"Now as the girls began to get married I could see that I would be left. So I decided the best thing to do was to get married again. I met and married Anna Elise Charlotte Kim of Salt lake on the 13th of February 1907. She had a small boy, Clarence, by a previous marriage, but I raised him like my own. From this marriage the following children were born Luella Golda, Kendall Kim, Alma Josephine, Esther Gwen, George Glen, and Woodrow Arden."1

Member of the City Council (1902 - 1903)

Wallace C. Burnham served in the city council until his resignation in May of 1903.2

Epilogue