Butte County CA Archives Biographies.....Wells, Michael Henry 1832 - 
************************************************
Copyright.  All rights reserved.
http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm
http://www.usgwarchives.net/ca/cafiles.htm
************************************************

File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Joy Fisher sdgenweb@yahoo.com January 30, 2006, 3:04 am

Author: Fariss & Smith (1882)

    MICHAEL HENRY WELLS was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on the
twenty-fifth of December, 1832. He was the son of Elisha and Eleanor (Silvis)
Wells. His father was a wholesale commission merchant, and a member of a firm
that was established in 1814. The boyhood days of Mr. Wells were spent in the
public schools, and clerking in a drug-store of his native city. In the autumn
of 1849, he set sail for California, via Cape Horn, and arrived in San Francisco
in June, 1850. In 1852, he returned to the East, and, in 1853, came back to the
Pacific Coast, and this time followed the mining excitement to the mouth of
Rogue river, in Oregon. During the Indian outbreak in 1856, he was one of the
company of 130 at Fort Miner, of whom seventy were killed by the savages. In the
autumn of the same year, he removed to Yankee hill, or to the vicinity, and has
since been identified with the locality and its industries. He visited his
eastern home again in 1870. In 1876, on his return from the Centennial
exposition, he was united in marriage to Miss Dora E. Spencer, daughter of John
W. and Abbie A. Spencer, of Belle-Plaine, Shawano county, Wisconsin. The
ceremony took place on the eighteenth of November, 1876. There are at this time,
two children, Elisha John, born February 21, 1878, and Eleanor Augusta, born
June 4, 1880. Mr. Wells is a zealous member of the Masonic fraternity, of lodge
No. 124, at Cherokee, of which he was master for two years, and, although the
lodge met weekly, lie did not miss one meeting. He is a member of Franklin
chapter, No. 22, and of Oroville commandery, No. 5. In 1852, he was one of the
organizers of the fire company in San Francisco called the Pennsylvania No. 12.
The engine was built in Philadelphia, and manned by Pennsylvanians. He has been
a justice of the peace for twenty-one years, and a merchant at Yankee hill since
1858. He is also postmaster, which office he has held through several changes in
the administration. His library is a very fine one, the volumes having been
selected with great judgment and taste, and number about 1,500. Mr. Wells is a
genial, hearty man, whom it is a pleasure to meet. A view of his place on Yankee
hill may be seen elsewhere in this volume.

Additional Comments:
Extracted from:

HISTORY OF BUTTE COUNTY, CALIFORNIA,
IN TWO VOLUMES.

I.
HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA FROM 1513 TO 1850.
BY FRANK T. GILBERT.

The Great Fur Companies and their Trapping Expeditions to California.
Settlement of the Sacramento Valley. 
The Discovery of Gold in California.
BY HARRY L. WELLS.

II.
HISTORY OF BUTTE COUNTY,
From its Earliest Settlement to the Present Time. 
BY HARRY L. WELLS AND W. L. CHAMBERS.

BOTH VOLUMES ILLUSTRATED WITH VIEWS AND PORTRAITS.
HARRY L. WELLS,
517 CLAY STREET, SAN FRANCISCO
1882.

Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1882, by HARRY L. WELLS, in
the office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington, D. C.

FRANCIS, VALENTINE & Co., Engravers & Printers
517 Clay St., San Francisco

File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/ca/butte/bios/wells575nbs.txt

This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.net/cafiles/

File size: 3.6 Kb