William Alexander A. Wallace

Wallace never married, and he told his own story his own way. He said he came to Texas after a brother and a cousin died at Goliad, meaning to take payment out of Mexicans, though in later years he said the account was squared. He was honest, people said, but liked to stretch the blanket in his tales. A post office took his nickname in 1883. When he died near it on January 7, 1899, the legislature paid to move his body to the State Cemetery in Austin, where he was reburied on February 25.

What the plaque says

William Alexander A. Wallace Known as Big Foot Wallace--defender of Texas and Texans. As soldier, ranger and mailrider, he protected the advancing frontier, died January 7, 1899.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Frio Pioneer Jail Museum — 18 mi
  Pearsall's 1884 county jail, the town's oldest building, used for 83 years and now a free museum with a sheriff's home downstairs and six cells above.
• Landmark Inn State Historic Site — 21 mi
  A store and stage stop at the Medina River ford in Henri Castro's Alsatian town, with a mill race under the ground and rooms you can still rent for the night.
• Atascosa County Courthouse — 21 mi
  The only surviving Mission Revival courthouse in Texas, built in 1912-13 on Jourdanton's town circle after a county seat vote that some residents still call a theft.
• Longhorn Museum — 25 mi
  Atascosa County in one roadside museum: longhorn-and-mustang ranching, a moved railroad depot and caboose, a horse-drawn hearse and the town that calls itself the birthplace of the cowboy.

More markers nearby

• William Carvin Winters — 1.8 mi
• James Washington Winters — 3.7 mi
• Judge Thomas L. Devine (1820-1890) — 6.8 mi
• First Baptist Church of Devine — 7.0 mi