Nathaniel Dick Wallace

Nathaniel Dick Wallace (October 27, 1845 – July 16, 1894) was a U.S. Representative from Louisiana and a prominent New Orleans businessman in the late nineteenth century. He was born in Columbia, Maury County, Tennessee, where he attended the local common schools. Details of his family background and early youth are sparsely recorded, but his subsequent education and career indicate that he was prepared for a life in commerce and public affairs at an early age.

Wallace pursued higher education abroad and enrolled at Trinity College Dublin, one of Ireland’s leading universities. He graduated from Trinity College in 1865, completing his studies in the immediate aftermath of the American Civil War. His decision to study in Dublin reflected both the international outlook of many Southern commercial families of the period and the continued educational ties between the United States and the British Isles. After receiving his degree, he remained abroad briefly before deciding to return to his native country.

In 1867 Wallace returned to the United States and eventually settled in New Orleans, Louisiana, a major commercial and shipping center on the Gulf of Mexico. By 1878 he had engaged in the commission business in New Orleans, participating in the trade and distribution of agricultural and manufactured goods that passed through the city’s busy port. His work in the commission trade placed him at the heart of the city’s mercantile community during a period of economic rebuilding and expansion in the post-Reconstruction South.

Wallace quickly rose to prominence in New Orleans business circles. He was twice elected president of the New Orleans Produce Exchange, an influential institution that coordinated and regulated the trade in commodities such as cotton, grain, and other agricultural products. In addition to his leadership at the Produce Exchange, he was active in a variety of manufacturing enterprises, reflecting the broader diversification of the Southern economy in the late nineteenth century. His reputation as a capable businessman and civic leader helped establish the foundation for his brief but notable entry into national politics.

Wallace was elected as a Democrat to the Forty-ninth Congress to fill the vacancy in the U.S. House of Representatives caused by the death of Representative Michael Hahn. Representing Louisiana, he took his seat on December 9, 1886, and served until March 3, 1887. His tenure coincided with a period of Democratic dominance in the South and ongoing national debates over tariffs, internal improvements, and the postwar economic order. Although he completed the unexpired term, Wallace was not a candidate for renomination in 1886 to the Fiftieth Congress, choosing instead to return his full attention to his business interests in New Orleans.

Alongside his political service, Wallace held a major position in the city’s industrial sector. Beginning in 1886, he served as president of Consumers Ice Company in New Orleans, a key enterprise in an era when commercial ice production was essential for food preservation, shipping, and public health in a hot, humid climate. He remained at the head of Consumers Ice Co. from 1886 until his death, overseeing operations during a time when mechanical refrigeration and ice manufacture were transforming urban life and commerce in the Gulf South.

Nathaniel Dick Wallace died on July 16, 1894, in Kenilworth, a neighborhood of Asheville, North Carolina, where he had gone, as many contemporaries did, to seek the health benefits of the mountain climate. At the time of his death he was still serving as president of Consumers Ice Co. His body was returned to New Orleans, and he was interred in Metairie Cemetery, one of the city’s most prominent burial grounds, reflecting his standing in the commercial and civic life of New Orleans and his brief but recorded service in the Congress of the United States.