Sallie Wallace, daughter of Dr. Wallace and Jane Perry Butler, was born at Greenville, S.C., in 1837, and moved to Ft. Gibson, I.T., then a frontier post near Fort Smith, Ark., in 1849, when her father was appointed by Pres. Taylor agent for the Cherokee Indians.
Upon the death of Dr. Butler, Mrs. Butler moved to Fayetteville, Ark., in order that her children might have the education advantages for which, even at that time, Fayetteville was justly famous; and there in 1854, Sallie Wallace was married to Robt. B. Rutherford of Fort Smith, who had just graduated from The University school, together with many others who afterward achieved distinction in the service of their State.
Mr. and Mrs. Rutherford moved to Lewisville, Ark., just prior to the Civil war, and when the men were called to the defense of their State and Southland Mrs. Rutherford, like most Southern women, was left to provide and care for her family, and with it all to give abundantly of her little to a hungry or distressed Confederate soldier.
Her cheerful self reliance and wonderful strength of character, inherited from her Scotch and English ancestry, through the New England mother and Cavalier father, stood her in good hand now during these dark and perilous times and the yet darker ones of the Reconstruction period.
Mrs. Rutherford has always felt the deepest interest in all that affects her adopted State and no woman in its borders enjoys to a higher degree the love and respect of all who know her. She is not only the possessor of a happy and optimistic nature, but of a rare and practical intellect, which has made her for years an important factor in church and philanthropic enterprises in Fort Smith and particularly is she always interested in matters concerning the South.
In her old age she remains a true daughter of the Old South, and to quote her own words is "Unreconstructed still." She finds much pleasure in recalling the days of 1861-65 at Fort Smith, when the sewing circle and daily visits to the temporary hospitals took up all her time.
Mrs. Beard, mother of Willie Beard, a Confederate Soldier, was frequently her companion and is very happily remembered by the old soldiers. Mrs. Sophy Kannady, Mrs. J.K. McKensie, the Gookan girls, and many others were among those who bore a distinguished part in passing events.
Whose loving ministrations nursed the wounded to health,
And soothed the last hours of the dying;
Whose unselfish labors
Supplied the wants of their defenders in the field.
Whose unwavering faith in our cause.
Showed ever a guiding star.
Through the perils and disasters of war;
Whose sublime fortitude
Sustained them under every privation and all suffering;
Whose floral offerings
Are yearly laid upon the graves of those
Whom they still honor and love;
and
Whose patriotism
Will teach their children
To emulate the deeds of their Confederate sires
But who with a modesty exelled only by their worth
Have ever discouraged
This tribute to the noble virtues