Townsend was born in DeWitt in Clinton County in easternmost Iowa, a son of John R. Townsend and the former Italia James. In 1894, Townsend moved with his family to the capital city ofLittle Rock, where his brother, A. E. "Jack" Townsend, was the long-term assistant postmaster. In 1902, Wallace Townsend obtained a Bachelor of Arts degree from Hendrix College in Conway, Arkansas, and became an educator for eight years. From 1906 to 1910, he was principal of Little Rock High School, in which capacity he obtained the first accreditation of the institution.
Legal and political career
In 1906, Townsend received his LLB degree from the William H. Bowen School of Law of the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. In 1910, he began a legal practice chiefly concerned with revenue bonds and that same year vacated the principalship in Little Rock and ran unsuccessfully as the Republican nominee for Arkansas superintendent of public instruction. He became an integral part of the GOP legal counsel active in the Lily White faction, which sought to recruit white Conservative Democrats into the Republican Party, then previously the domain of the relatively few African-American voters registered in the state. In 1914, Townsend joined Augustus Caleb Remmel, chairman of the Pulaski County Republican organization, to take control of the state party for the Lily Whites. A. C. Remmel, known as "Gus" Remmel, was the father of later Republican figure Pratt C. Remmel, who was the mayor of Little Rock from 1951 to 1955, and ran unsuccessfully in 1954 against Orval Faubus for the governorship.
Townsend was the unsuccessful Republican gubernatorial nominee in both 1916 and 1920, having been defeated by the Democrats, Charles Hillman Brough and Thomas Chipman McRae, respectively. In the 1916 race, Townsend polled 43,963 votes, compared to Brough's 122,041. Another 9,730 votes were cast for the SocialistWilliam Davis. In the 1920 race, McRae polled 123, 637 votes to Townsend's 46,350. An Independent, Josiah H. Blount, the principal of an African-American school in Helena, Arkansas, defected from the Republicans and received the remaining 15,627. Blount was formerly affiliated with the former Black-and-Tan faction of the GOP. The gains predicted by Townsend and the Lily Whites never materialized, and the Black and Tans, as they became known in other southern states as well, were reconciled for several more decades with the regular GOP. In time though Arkansas black voters swung solidly Democratic by the 1970s.
As the trustee of the Little Rock Stave Company, which declared bankruptcy in April 1912, Townsend filed suit over payment of 10 percent dividends to stockholders. The payments were made after the firm had already become insolvent. Townsend was active in many organizations, such as the Little Rock Boys Club and the Chamber of Commerce.
Personal life
Townsend and his wife, Bess Voss, whom he married in 1914, had two daughters. She died in 1958, and four years later, Townsend wed Floy Smith Plunkett. Townsend continued to practice law until 1974, when he retired at the age of ninety-two. He died some five years later in Little Rock.
