Editor of Wallaces' Farmer 1921 - 1933
Founder, Hi-Bred Corn Company 1926
U.S. Secretary of Agriculture 1933 - 1940
U.S. Vice-President 1941 - 1944
U.S. Secretary of Commerce 1945 - 1946

The third Henry Wallace, Henry A., was born on the family farm in Adair County, Iowa near Orient. He had no interaction with other children except his younger sister until he was four years old. The family moved to Ames, Iowa in 1892. Henry A. developed his interest in plants, encouraged by his mother and college student George Washington Carver.

In 1896, the family moved to Des Moines, Iowa when Wallaces' Farmer began publishing weekly. Henry attended Elmwood School and West High School at 15th and Center, a block east of his grandparents' home at 16th and Center.

At the turn of the 20th century, corn shows were at the height of popularity, and judging criteria stressed physical uniformity of ear and kernel type. In 1903, Henry A. participated in a corn judging short course, and when he questioned the value of the "beauty contest" in predicting the yield, the instructor encouraged him to plant each of the 40 ears on an ear-to-row basis the next season and compare yields.

Wallace grew his first experimental plot while still a high school student and found that the ear which had placed first in the show yielded among the poorest. He chose some of the best-yielding seed and sold 10 bushels for $10 per bushel. This was the start of his life-long involvement with the improvement of corn through genetic selection.

Henry A. graduated from West High in 1906 and attended Iowa State College. While at Iowa State, he began writing for Wallaces' Farmer and continuing his experiments with corn. After graduation in 1910, he went to work for the paper. In 1914, he married Ilo Browne of Indianola. They had a milk route and farmed south of Des Moines in Warren County. Henry A. continued with more methodical development of hybrid corn, which he wrote about frequently in Wallaces' Farmer.

In 1920, he helped establish the Iowa State Corn Yield Tests, reporting the annual results in Wallaces' Farmer. When his father left for Washington, D.C. as Secretary of Agriculture in 1921, Henry A. became editor. He established the State Corn Husking Championships in 1921 and the Master Farmer Awards in 1927.

In 1926, Henry A. and several of his friends organized the Hi-Bred Corn Company with an investment of $5,000, most of which came from his wife Ilo. Henry's brother James was elected secretary of the company and spent the rest of his career with what would become Pioneer Hi-Bred International, now Pioneer, A Dupont Company.

In 1929, while Henry A. was on a trip to Europe, his uncle John Wallace, who was the business manager of Wallaces' Farmer, arranged and approved the purchase of the Iowa Homestead, the same paper that Uncle Henry had left to start Wallaces' Farmer. The new publication, called Wallaces' Farmer and Iowa Homestead, had a combined circulation of 250,000, but the inagural issue was one week before the stock market crash.

Henry A. continued as editor of Wallaces' Farmer and Iowa Homestead until he was selected as Secretary of Agriculture by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt in 1933. Later that year, the Pierce family repurchased the bankrupt paper. Henry A.'s name remained on the masthead as Editor until 1940.

He proved to be a remarkable administrator of the USDA, achieving an list of impressive accomplishments during the darkest years of the Depression, including price supports and production adjustment, crop insurance, diaster relief, soil conservation, surplus storage, rural electrification, farm credit, food stamps, and the resettlement of small farmers. Nearly all of Henry A.'s agricultural policies remained in effect for almost 60 years.

Roosevelt was re-elected in 1936, and Wallace continued his crusade to create a better life not only for farmers but all Americans. Wallace was one of the most important planners and administrators of New Deal programs. Roosevelt selected Henry A. as his running mate in 1940, and as Vice President, Wallace increasingly represented the U.S. in foreign affairs, traveling to Mexico, Central and South America, China and the Soviet Union.

During this time Wallace was one of the most popular authors in the world, and his books were translated into many languages. His motto was "Peace, Prosperity, and Equality", and he advocated a better life for all Americans, as well as citizens of other countries.

Harry Truman became Vice-President in 1945, and Wallace became Secretary of Commerce, with the goals of creating full post-war employment, equal pay for equal work, stimulating foreign trade, and providing technical assistance to small businesses.

Wallace favored diplomatic relations with and humanitarian aid to the Soviet Union and China, and did not agree with Truman's support of the military industrial complex and the cold war. These conflicts led to Wallace's resignation.

Wallace believed so strongly in the importance of world peace and cooperation that he became a candidate for the presidency on the Progressive Party ticket in 1948. The platform called for national health insurance, a guaranteed minimum wage, monopoly control, equal employment opportunities for women, and equal pay for equal work.

After his defeat,Wallace retired from public life to his Farvue Farm in New York state with his wife Ilo to pursue his lifelong interest in genetics, breeding chickens, corn, strawberries, and gladiolas, and working to improve food production in developing countries.Wallace maintained a busy schedule of writing, correspondence, traveling, and speaking engagements.

Wallace had seen the problems of hunger and poverty during his travels, and continued to work to promote increased production of food and provision of basic services. In late 1964, Wallace developed symptoms of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or Lou Gehrig's disease. He volunteered for experimental treatment trials through the National Institutes of Health. Henry A. Wallace died at age 77 in Danbury Hospital, Danbury, Connecticut, on November 18, 1965. Final rites were delivered and ashes interred at Glendale Cemetery in Des Moines.

Henry A. Wallace's pioneering achievements in science and agricultural reform are the lasting imprints of his life. The scientific achievements in corn and chicken hybridization have had world-wide positive benefits, and many of his achievements in agricultural reform lasted nearly 60 years.