William Wallace and Fannie Van Winkle

William Wallace Van Winkle was born 15 Mar 1866 in Benton County, Ar.  
(One source, Buford (?), said Wallace celebrated his birthday on the 4th of March. 
Wallace's gravestone had the birth date as 1867, but a Bible record
says 1866).  He died 21 Feb 1937 in Rogers, New Mexico and is buried in the
Mt. Zion Cemetery, by Wheeler Funeral Home of Portales. 

Bits and pieces from the Pioneers of Roosevelt County, state that he lived at
Lowell, AR, Rogers, AR, Portales & Rogers, NM, and Lamesa, TX.  An 1893 news
item told of Wallace, John Thornsberry, John Creager and others taking their
teams to 'territory' to work. [OK Territory]     He clerked in a department store, 
and then farmed in Benton County, AR, owned property in Township 18
Range 30 from 1894 to 1906. 

In 1906 the Territory of New Mexico opened lands for land grants about the time
the railroads opened the territories.  That year, Wallace and several of his friends 
and neighbors loaded several rail cars with possessions, including three buggies, 
wagons, farm implements and even lumber and building materials.  They brought
horses, cows, pigs, chickens, ducks and geese.  There were fruit and shade tree 
cuttings, garden seeds, grapevines, blackberrys, and asparagas. 

The story of that trip was written in a letter to Wallace's daughter, Martha, from 
Marie Phillips who made the trip.  She told how they brought tents, lawn mowers
and a large swing.  The men rode the freight train with the possessions.  It often
went so slow, due to the new and unpredictable tracks, that some of the men 
walked along side shooting rabbits.  The ladies and children went on a
passenger train that left three days earlier than the men. Martha read the letter
to the reunion of Wallace's family in Rogers, AR in 1983.