Butte County
Biographies
MICHAEL HENRY WELLS
MICHAEL HENRY WELLS.--A pioneer of the
Pacific Coast country,
who came via Panama in 1850, and after
landing at San Francisco soon made his way to Oregon,
was the late Michael Henry Wells, who was born in Philadelphia,
in 1830. He was a graduate from Mercersburg
College and was a druggist by
profession. In 1850, he decided that the western country held out better
opportunities for a young man of energy and accordingly he came west. In Oregon
he conducted a mercantile established and ran a pack train at Rogue River,
until he lost everything during the Rogue River Indian war, when he came back
into California and decided he
would try his hand at mining. In 1856, he came to Yankee Hill, Butte
County, and mined for a short time,
then started a store, was appointed postmaster, ran a hotel and become a man of
considerable importance in the community. In 1883, he erected a new hotel
building and prospered financially. He served as Justice of the Peace and was a
notary public. He was a great friend to the Indians and a general advisor of
the people in his section of the county. He was also interested in farming and
stock-raising until his death, in 1891. He was a Knights Templar Mason, was a
master in Table Mountain Lodge for years; also belonged to the Odd Fellows, and
was a true-blue Republican.
Michael
Henry Wells was united in marriage in Belle Plaine,
Wis., with Miss Dora Spencer, a native of Clinton, Maine,
and a daughter of J. W. and Abigail (Parker) Spencer, who settled in Wisconsin
and were farmers. Miss Spencer was educated in the
public schools and reared in Wisconsin.
She came to California on a
visit, in 1874, and resided in Oroville for a year, and it was here that she
met Mr. Wells. In 1875, she returned to Wisconsin
and the following year Mr. Wells went East and they
were married
in November of 1876. They
returned to California and this
has been her home ever since. After the death of her husband, Mrs. Wells served
as postmaster for seventeen years, and carried on the hotel
and merchandise business, as well as the stock and grain business
on her two hundred seventy-acres of land. She has three children: John,
assisting his mother; Eleanor A., wife of R. W. Campbell
of Oroville; and Michael W., manager of the
Crystal Drug store. Mrs. Wells is a member of the Cherokee Rebekah
Lodge, and is a trustee and clerk of Yankee
Hill School district.
She is a woman of ability and resourcefulness and is public spirited to a
degree in the support of all projects for the development of Butte
County.
Transcribed by Sande Beach.
Source: "History of
Butte County, Cal.," by George C. Mansfield, Pages 462-465, Historic Record Co, Los Angeles, CA, 1918.
© 2007 Sande Beach.
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