John Hankins Wallace

Raised on a farm in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, John Hankins Wallace was born in 1822 and later moved to Muscatine, Iowa, after marrying in his twenties. There he worked with the State Board of Agriculture, and that role helped spark the interest that would define his career: documenting the history and bloodlines of trotting horses.

Wallace became one of the key early historians and record-keepers of American harness racing. In 1871 he published the first volume of his Trotting Register, and he was closely associated with the effort to establish standards for the trotting horse in the United States. He also went on to publish Wallace's Year Book, and his work laid foundations that later influenced the official register and yearbook traditions of the sport.

In his later years, Wallace devoted himself to larger historical writing, including The Horse of America in His Derivation, History and Development. He died in 1903, but he remained well remembered in harness-racing history for combining practical knowledge, careful documentation, and a genuine belief that the story of the horse was worth preserving.