Ionia County MI Archives Obituaries.....Wells, Ellen A. 1874
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Marilyn Ransom mlnransom@chartermi.net August 15, 2012, 11:40 pm

The Ionia Standard, Friday, September 4, 1874

Died.  WELLS—In Ionia, on the 23rd instant, after a brief illness, Ellen A., 
wife of Hon. Willard B. Wells, of this City, aged 36 years.

The deceased, whose maiden name was Ellen A. Hatch, was born in the State of 
New York, in 1835.  After pursuing her preparatory studies she entered the 
Young Ladies’ Seminary, at Mount Holyoke, Mass., from which institution she 
graduated in 1850.  She then removed to Ionia, where for a time she taught in 
the Union School, and also in a select school.  In 1861, she returned to her 
parental home, and in August of that year was united in marriage with Hon. 
Willard B. Wells.

Mrs. Wells was a lady of finished education, and of a superior mind.  She was 
well informed upon all the topics of the day, and notwithstanding the pressure 
of her daily duties, she perused the choicer works of our modern literature, 
and generally pursued some branch of study.  With all these, however she was 
not wanting in the domestic virtues.  She fulfilled to a remarkable degree 
Solomon’s description of the excellent wife and mother, in that “she looked 
well to the ways of her household.”  Industrious in her habits, economical and 
prudent in her management and marked by energy and indomitable perseverance 
she accomplished results as would scarcely have been expected from one with a 
so naturally frail constitution.  Few there are whose ambition, and whose 
interests were so closely associated with home.  It was the height of her 
wishes, so far as this life was concerned, to render it attractive and 
pleasant for her family, and train up her children to faithfully serve God and 
their generation.

As a wife, “the heart of her husband did safely truest in her.”  She 
interested herself in his business, and was his wise and judicious counselor 
in all matter in which they had a common interest.  As a mother, she loved her 
children with a self-sacrificing devotion.  But far from injuring them with 
indulgence, she sought to cultivate in them habits of industry and self-
reliance.  She took a deep and lively interest in their studies, and watched 
most carefully over their mental and moral development.

But with all her faithfulness as wife and mother she was also an attentive and 
kind neighbor, and the various moral and public interests of the community 
such as those of education, temperance and the promotion of literary 
cultivation and taste, were dear to her heart.

Mrs. Wells was a sincere Christian.  While at the Seminary at Mt. Holyoke, she 
consecrated herself to the service of her Savior.  When about to leave the 
Institution, she resolved, with her class, to live “as seeing him who is 
invisible,” and this principle was indeed the mainspring of her activity at 
home, in the church and the community.  Her piety was marked by the strength 
of her convictions, the firmness of her faith, the evenness of her daily 
experience and by a cheerful hope.

The funeral of Mrs. Wells was attended from the Presbyterian Church, on the 
26th inst., by a large number of our citizens, testifying in their deep sorrow 
that the blow had fallen not merely upon the afflicted husband and family, but 
upon the entire community.


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