Hon. George H. Wells, Calcasieu Parish, Louisiana
Submitted by Mike Miller


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A leading member, not only of the Calcasieu bar, but of that of 
southwest Louisiana, is Hon. George H. Wells, of Lake Charles.  He 
was born September 11, 1888, at Schenectady, N. Y., and is a son of 
Joel and Susan (Bellows) Wells, natives of Massachusetts.  George H. 
received his education in the common schools of his native state.  At 
the age of nineteen years he left school and came to Louisiana. This 
was in 1852, and December 18, 1854, he was admitted to the bar at 
New Orleans, and located at Harrisonburg, Catahoula parish, where he 
practiced law until 1861.  He was district attorney in 1859 by 
appointment, and then by election, and held the position until he 
resigned it for the "tented field" in the stormy period of 1861.  When 
the war commenced he enlisted as a private in Company G, Eleventh 
Louisiana infantry.  He was soon made sergeant-major and then 
promoted to lieutenant.  When the Eleventh was mustered out 
Lieutenant Wells joined Shelly's battalion.  Afterward he united with 
the Houston City (Texas) battalion as its major.  During Major Wells' 
army experience he volunteered four times, and was discharged three 
times on account of ill health.  After the war was over he laid aside his 
sword, and opened his law office.  He located at Lake Charles, 
Calcasieu parish, in 1866, where he has since practiced law.  His 
practice is large and lucrative, and as a criminal lawyer he has few 
equals in this pert of the state.  He is a finished orator upon almost any 
topic.

Although his educational training was wholly in the common schools, 
yet so thorough it was, coupled with his voluminous reading, that he 
speaks with the chosen language and fluency of a classic scholar.  Mr. 
Wells is democratic in his political views but does not claim to be a 
politician.  He was elected to the state senate in 1878, from the district 
composed of the parishes of Calcasieu, Cameron, Vermillion and St. 
Mary, and in the session which followed his course was marked by the 
same high ability which has given him such eminence.  This closed his 
political career, and he has since devoted himself sedulously to the 
practice of his profession.  Major Wells was married in May, 1861, to 
Miss Ellen C. Lewis, of Rapides parish.

She died in April, 1886, leaving seven children-five daughters and two 
sons.  In 1889 he married Miss Jessie Barden, of Lake Charles.  Mr. 
Wells is a member of the M. E. church, South, and is president of its 
board of stewards.  He is a Free Mason, and is district deputy grand 
master of the Eighteenth Masonic district of Louisiana.

Biographical and Historical Memoires of Louisiana, (vol. 2), p. 503.  
Published by the Goodspeed Publishing Company, Chicago, 1892.