Wallace Wattles - Life and Career

Life and Career

Wattles' daughter, Florence A. Wattles, described her father's life in a "Letter" that was published shortly after his death in the New Thought magazine Nautilus, edited by Elizabeth Towne. The Nautilus had previously carried articles by Wattles in almost every issue, and Towne was also his book publisher. Florence Wattles wrote that her father was born in the U.S. in 1860, received little formal education, and found himself excluded from the world of commerce and wealth.

According to the 1880 US Federal Census, Wallace lived with his parents on a farm in Nunda Township of McHenry County, Illinois and worked as a farm laborer. His father is listed as a gardener and his mother as "keeping house." Wallace is listed as being born in Illinois while his parents are listed as born in New York. No other siblings are recorded as living with the family. According to the 1910 census, Wattles had changed the spelling of his last name from Walters to Wattles. He was married to Abbie Walters, 47, at the time. They had three children: Florence Walters, 22, Russell H. Walters, 27, and Agnes Walters, 16. It also shows that at the time Wallace's mother Mary A. Walters was living with the family at the age of 79.

Florence wrote that "he made lots of money, and had good health, except for his extreme frailty" in the last three years before his death. Wattles died on February 7, 1911 in Ruskin, Tennessee and his body was transported home for burial to Elwood, Indiana. As a sign of respect businesses closed throughout the town for two hours on the afternoon of his funeral.

His death at age 51 was regarded as "untimely" by his daughter (even though the average life expectancy for a male born in 1860 in the U.S. was 42 years), since in the previous year he had not only published two books (The Science of Being Well and The Science of Getting Rich), but he had also run for public office.