Editor of Wallaces' Farmer 1916-1921
U.S. Secretary of Agriculture 1921-1924

The second Henry Wallace was born in Rock Island, Illinois in 1866. Henry was called "Henry C." or "Harry". He was eleven years old when the family moved to Winterset, where he worked as a printer's devil (apprentice) for his father's paper, the Winterset Chronicle. He attended Iowa State College for two years, married May Brodhead, and then farmed the family land in Adair County for the next five years. There Henry A. Wallace was born in 1888.

In 1892, Henry C. moved the family back to Ames to complete his degree and became as Associate Professor of Dairy Science. In 1893, Henry C. and his brother John became partners with Professor Curtiss to publish Farm and Dairy, which later became Wallaces' Farmer. The Wallace family befriended George Washington Carver, the first African-American student at Iowa State College. Carver was a botany student and allowed young Henry A. to accompany him on expeditions in and around Ames. Henry A. later credited Carver with encouraging his early interest in plants and botany.

Henry C. handled much of the daily details at Wallaces' Farmer, and became editor when his father Uncle Henry died. Henry C. was a leader of Des Moines civic activities, especially the YMCA and the Red Cross. He helped establish 4-H and Extension programs in Iowa, and was a leading figure in the organization of the American Farm Bureau.

He was longtime president of the Cornbelt Meat Producers Association. Appointed Secretary of Agriculture by President Harding in 1921, Henry C. Wallace promoted programs for American farmers struggling against over-production and the collapse of farm prices following the first World War. He achieved a distinguished record as an administrator, framer of agricultural policies, creator of the Bureau of Agricultural Economics, and promoter of equalilty for agriculture and a better rural society. He died unexpectedly following gall bladder surgery in 1924. His book, Our Debt and Duty to the Farmer, was published posthumously.