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BOROUGH OF WALLACETON
The Borough of Wallaceton is situated in the northeast corner of Boggs township and contains about four hundred
and twenty-six square acres of land. It was incorporated as a borough in 1873. The town is located on an elevated
plateau about fifteen hundred feet above the sea level. The land on either side is rolling, giving the town good
drainage.
It is on the line of the Tyrone & Clearfield Branch of the Pennsylvania Railroad, and also on the line of the
Beech Creek division of the New York Central Railroad.
The town has three churches and the principal industry is the large brick manufacturing plant of the Wallaceton
Fire Brick Company now owned by the Harbison-Walker Refractories Company.
The town was named in honor of the late Senator Wm. A. Wallace of Clearfield, Pa., and has a population of about
five hundred.
Although the people of Wallaceton, as a general rule, are law abiding citizens, the little borough has the unfortunate
distinction of having been the scene of three homicides, which gave the town a rather unenviable notoriety. The
first of these was the killing of Maria Waple, November 3, 1876. Martin V. Turner, who was accused of this murder,
was arrested and after a hotly contested trial, was convicted in the courts of murder in the first degree, but
a new trial was granted by the Supreme Court and the place of trial was changed to Lock Haven, in Clinton county.
On the second trial, Turner was acquitted. The second was the death of Ida Douglas, July 1, 1882. For this crime
the perpetrator was arrested, tried, convicted and sentenced to five years in the penitentiary. The third tragedy
was the murder of Ella Davis, who was shot by James McClain on August 6, 1886, the murderer immediately killed
himself in the presence of the victim of his crime.
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