Catalpa
a.k.a. Wallace Farm
SE of Greenfield, Greenfield, IAThis farm is important for its association with the lives of two Iowa agricultural and political leaders who gained national prominence. Henry Catwell Wallace owned and edited the influential paper, Wallace's Farmer, and served as the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture, 1921-24. His son, Henry Agard Wallace, who continued the newspaper until his father's death in 1924, achieved prominence in national public life as U.S. Secretary of Agriculture, 1933-40, Vice President of the United States, 1941-45, U.S. Secretary of Commerce, 1945-46, and presidential candidate of the Progressive Party in 1948.
The farm was one of several in Adair County purchased by Henry Cantwell's father during the period 1869-87, all of which were Teased to tenants. In 1877 Reverend Henry A. Wallace left the ministry and moved to Winterset, Madison County, Iowa, to look after these nearby land investments. It was not until 1887 however that this particular farm came to be directly operated by members of the Wallace family. At that time, a tenant left the farm and Henry C. Wallace, a student bored with his studies at Iowa State Agricultural College, convinced his father to allow him to take over and operate the property. After five years, during which time his son, Henry Agard was born, Henry C. Wallace returned to finish his degree at Ames and then remained there until 1895 as a member of the faculty. Thereafter, it was the new Wallace family newspaper in Des Moines that became the focus of the family economic endeavor. Yet, even in 1924 Henry C. owned a 280-acre farm eight miles north of Des Moines and his son, Henry A., owned forty acres adjoining.
By 1916 Wallace's Farmer was one of the leading agricultural papers in the United States. It took an active early role in antimonopoly legislation and led other agricultural newspapers in the attention it gave to agricultural economics.
Because of the strong role exerted by these individuals on agricultural and political affairs, the Wallace Farm merits a nomination. It was both directly connected with the formative years of these men and is illustrative of their subsequent activities.
Listed in National Register of Historic Places in 1974.
The National Register of Historic Places is the official list of the Nation’s historic places worthy of preservation. Authorized by the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966, the National Park Service’s National Register of Historic Places is part of a national program to coordinate and support public and private efforts to identify, evaluate, and protect America’s historic and archeological resources.