Chapter 6
THE WALLACES AND THE GEATZES
“Call it a clan, call it a network, call it a tribe, call it a family -
whatever you call it, whoever you are, you need one."
- Jane Howard
Here is what I know about my grandparents on my mother’s side and how I
felt about them.
What little genealogical information I have been able to gather is also
included, especially for you who are descendants, who I would like to think are
interested in your ancestry.
i - T. A. Wallace and Family
Theodore Andrew Wallace and Mary Barbara Geatz were both 21 when on
October 16, 1894, they were married at the five A.M. Mass at Saints Peter and Paul’s
church in Cumberland, Maryland. The church stood atop the scenic overlook at the
beginning of Fayette Street, a few blocks from the Geatz home on Cumberland Street.
The bride, so it is said, promptly bound up her long dark hair - a married
woman, said Theodore, is not supposed to wear her hair hanging loose - and settled
into the routine and rigors of married life.
Theodore and Mary lived for a while with her parents on Cumberland Street. In
1900 or shortly thereafter they rented a house in the north end of Cumberland but soon
began buying the house on Fayette Street, where they lived for the rest of their lives.
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