James Madison Wells, Rapides Parish, Louisiana
Submitted by: Suzanne Shoemaker

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Source: Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Northwest Louisiana
The Southern Publishing Company, Chicago & Nashville,  1890

     EX-GOV JAMES MADISON WELLS, of Louisiana, one of the representative
citizens of the state, is a native of Louisiana, his birth occurring twelve
miles above the town of Alexandria, in Rapides Parish, on January 8, 1808.
He is a son of Levi and Mary E. (Calvit) Wells, the father born in St.
Landry Parish, La., in 1764.  The latter grew to manhood in his native
parish, and was a surveyor by occupation.  He located in Rapides Parish in
1798, and was there engaged in planting sugar cane and indigo.  He surveyed
land here for the Government, and later was elected to the Legislature from
his parish several times.  He was a member of the Constitutional Convention
from this parish to organize and draft the first state constitution for
Louisiana.  The father died in 1815; he had just returned from the State
Legislature, and was a member of that body when the English landed for the
War of 1812.  The grandfather Wells was an exiled Irishman because of his
politics, and finally settled in the country that afterward became
Louisiana.  Ex-Gov. James Madison Wells was educated at Middletown, Conn.,
in Capt. Patridge's Military School, and was a classmate of Gov. Seymour,
of New York.  He read law in Cincinnati, Ohio, for some time, and returned
home without finishing his course to take charge of his large slave and
landed interest.  He ran his plantation until the breaking out of the war,
and then was a heavy loser from the fact that men owing him were unable to
pay off their indebtedness when they lost their slaves.  Mr. Wells was an
outspoken Union man from the first, and was opposed to the war, but voted
for Douglas, believing him to be the most available man.  He was personally
acquainted with him and believed him to be the great intellect of the
times.  He advocated his principles on the stump and elsewhere, and had to
leave this parish to save his life.  In a speech made at this place after
the declaration of war, he used these words which have since become
proverbial: "The rich man's war and the poor man's fight."  He remained
here until Bank's expedition, and then the latter told him he was in
danger, after which he moved to New Orleans.  He went to Washington City to
talk to President Lincoln, and his interview resulted in the President
telling him that the bottom would soon be knocked out at---, and that would
end the affair, but good men must perish in the conflict.  Mr. Wells was
elected governor of the state in 1864, and acted as military governor until
the close of the war.  He was removed from the governorship by Phil
Sheridan, on account of dispute about levees.  He entered the mercantile
business while in New Orleans in 1866 and 1867, and he returned to his
plantation, bringing back with him many of his old slaves as free men.  He
remained on his plantation until the latter part of 1867, and being one of
the prominent men of the state always elected his choice men for the
Legislature.  About 1865 he was appointed by President Grant as surveyor of
the port in the custom house of New Orleans.  He was a member of the
returning board for Louisiana, and was president of the state returning
board of Louisiana at the time of Hayes' election.  He could not be turned
by the use of money; no bribe could change him from doing the right thing
so far as he could discriminate between right and wrong.  He still owns the
plantation of about 600 or 700 acres of land.  He was married in Alexandria
to Miss Mary A. Scott, a native of Alexandria, who is still living.  They
became the parents of fourteen children, nine of whom are still living:
Thomas M., James Madison, Jr., Jefferson Johnson, Alexander Carnell, and
Samuel Scott, were the sons, and Mary E. (widow of H. T. Burgess), Courtney
C. (now Mrs. Weems), Laulette (widow of Charles Snowdon), and Bessie
Gordon, are the daughters.  The mother of these children is a descendant of
the followers of Lord Baltimore, and was of French Huguenot descent.