Los Angeles County
Biographies
ARTHUR GEORGE WELLS
WELLS, ARTHUR GEORGE, General Manager, Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway Coast Lines, Los Angeles, California, was born at Guelph, Ontario, Canada, November 18, 1861, the son of Arthur Wells and Georgina Dora (Ridout) Wells. Mr. Wells comes frm a long line of English origin and his grandfather fought under Wellington in Spain against the great Napoleon. He married Gertrude Alice Barnard, October 15, 1884, at St. Joseph, Missouri. There are two children, Helen Audley and Louise Wells.
Mr. Wells is one of the notable examples of the men wh have begun their railroad careers in the humblest positions and through application, tact and ambition have arisen to the highest places. The office he holds now, in 1911, is one of the most important on the railroads of this country.
He attended the public and high schools of Guelph, Canada, until he was fifteen years of age, and then at once entered the railway service to acquire an experience which quickly drove him to the top.
His first work was as an apprentice machinist in the shops of the Kansas City, St. Joseph & Council Bluffs Railroad at St. Joseph, Missouri, in the year 1876.
He was chosen four years later, for the position of clerk of the mechanical department of the same road. After satisfactorily filling this position he resigned, and with considerable experience gained he became clerk to the purchasing agent of the Atlantic and Pacific Railroad.
In March, 1882, he was offered a clerical position at San Marcial, New Mexico, for the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad.
In June, 1882, he became chief clerk to the general superintendent of the Atlantic and Pacific Railroad at Albuquerque, New Mexico, which became another step in his advancement. In this position he came in touch with every department of railroad management, and it was here that he received the experiences which qualified him for higher positions.
He wanted something besides office experiences, so he found the place of train-master of the same road open to him. Here he had direct command of the movement of trains, an experience which proved invaluable to him. Shortly after this, October, 1886, he was offered and accepted the office of assistant to the general manager of the Ohio and Mississippi Railway.
In January, 1890, he accepted the general superintendency of the Ohio, Indiana and Western Railway, which was absorbed by the Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago and St. Louis Railway, and was successively superintendent of the Peoria, Indianapolis and St. Louis divisions of that road.
The Santa Fe system, in 1893, sought his services to fill the office of assistant to the first vice president of that great railroad. He qualified in this office and was given the independent general superintendence of the Atlantic and Pacific Railroad, a road where he had been employed in humble capacities during his earlier railway experiences.
He was general superintendent of the Southern California Railway, and of the San Francisco and San Joaquin Railway, all three branches of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe system. Since 1901 he has been general manager of the trio of roads, with residence and general offices at Los Angeles.
Mr. Wells has been well liked in every community in which he has settled, and has been given social honors in all of his station cities. At Los Angeles he has been president of the California Club and is a member of the Pacific Union Club of San Francisco, the Los Angeles Country Club, the Cuyamaca Club of San Diego, and the Commercial Club of Albuquerque, New Mexico.
Transcribed 9-27-08
Marilyn R. Pankey.
Source: Press
Reference Library, Western Edition Notables of the West, Vol. I, Page 140,
International News Service, New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles,
Boston, Atlanta. 1913.
© 2008 Marilyn R. Pankey.
GOLDEN NUGGET'S LOS ANGELES BIOGRAPIES