Bio of WELLES, Edwin Pillsbury (b.1835 d.1904), Hennepin Co., MN
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EXTRACTED FROM: History of Minneapolis, Gateway to the Northwest; 
Chicago-Minneapolis, The S J Clarke Publishing Co, 1923; Edited by: Rev. 
Marion Daniel Shutter, D.D., LL.D.; Volume I - Shutter (Historical); 
volume II - Biographical; volume III - Biographical

Vol III, pg 46-49
EDWIN PILLSBURY WELLES
The ancestry of Edwin Pillsbury Welles was distinctively American in both its
lineal and collateral lines. In the year 1635 Thomas Welles arrived from England
and settled in Connecticut, becoming governor of that colony. Through the
inter­vening period to the present representatives of the name have been active
in further­ing progress and promoting civilization in many sections of the
country, and true to form E. P. Welles bore his part in the work of development
and upbuilding in the upper Mississippi valley, where he became a leading and
successful lumberman. Not long after the arrival of Thomas Welles in the new
world he purchased land at Wethersfield, Hartford county, Connecticut, from the
Indians and in the old home­stead which he established six generations of his
descendants resided, while E. P. Welles of this review was of the seventh
generation. His mother belonged to the Pillsbury family, prominent in New
Hampshire from the early colonial period. She became the wife of Leonard R.
Welles, a manufacturer of edged tools.
It was on the 24th of April, 1835, at the old family homestead in Wethersfield,
Connecticut, that Edwin P. Welles first opened his eyes to the light of day and
in his home town he supplemented his early common school education by study in
an excellent academy. At Hartford, Connecticut, he had charge of a hardware
store before attaining his majority but did not long continue in business in New
England, for, attracted by the opportunities of the west, he made his way to
Sandusky, Ohio, in 1855, in company with his eldest brother, Leonard R. Welles.
There he engaged in the hardware business but in less than a year he had left
Ohio for Fulton, Illinois, and again became connected with the hardware trade.
With his brother's return to the east Edwin P. Welles moved to Marshalltown,
Iowa, and there established a hardware store, which he conducted until 1866. He
then returned to Fulton, Illinois, and became associated with W. P. Culbertson
in the manufacture and sale of lumber, conducting business at that point for
three years, when he sold out and moved to Clinton, Iowa. He found the lumber
trade a congenial field of labor and purchased an interest in the Clinton Lumber
Company, of which he became secretary and treasurer, taking active part in the
management and direction of the business until 1873, when he sold his stock. He
afterward joined with T. B. Wadleigh and D. J. Batchelder in organizing the firm
of Wadleigh, Welles & Company, which entered upon the manufacture of lumber in
Lyons, Iowa, and when' Mr. Wadleigh sold his interest in the business to his
partners in 1879, the firm name was changed to Welles, Gardiner & Company. Mr.
Welles withdrew from the business in 1880, thus terminating a period of fourteen
years of active connection with lumber manu­facturing. For a few years
thereafter he devoted his time largely to travel, yet was financially interested
in a lumber industry in association with John H. Queal, holding his stock in the
business until 1892, during which period the firm of J. H. Queal & Company had
extended and developed the business until they were among the most prominent
operators of line lumberyards in the country.
In 1894 Mr. Welles arrived in Minneapolis, and associated with C. S. Alden of
Clinton, Iowa, his brother, Charles F. Welles, and George H. Cook of
Minneapolis, he organized the Brainerd Lumber Company, which also built the
Brainerd & Northern Minnesota Railroad, of which he was president. This line is
now operated by the Northern Pacific Railway Company as the Minnesota &
International Rail­road. Edwin P. Welles also became one of the directors of the
First National Bank of Minneapolis and remained an active factor in the business
circles of the city until his demise. He was the treasurer of the Brainerd
Lumber Company, operating at Brainerd, Minnesota, and at Minneapolis, and while
he did not become allied with the industry here in pioneer times he belonged to
that class who recognized the possibilities and opportunities of the later
period and directed his labors toward the constant expansion of business
interests and connections whereby Minnesota has greatly benefited and prospered.
He was likewise a director of the Minnesota Loan & Trust Company to the time of
his death.
It was on the 24th of March, 1857, that Mr. Welles was united in marriage to
Miss Isabelle Griswold, with whom he had been acquainted from early boyhood.
They became parents of two daughters: Mary Alice, the wife of W. F. Coan,
cashier of the Clinton National Bank; and Florence, the wife of Elbert L.
Carpenter, presi­dent of the Shevlin Carpenter company of Minneapolis. Mr.
Welles' interest cen­tered in his home and he found his greatest happiness at
his own fireside. He rejoiced in his success, by reason of what it enabled him
to do for his wife and children and also in aiding many worthy public projects.
He was a member of Westminster church for many years and while broadminded in
religious matters, he was a devout Christian and practiced in his everyday life
what was for the good of his fellowman, and his church greatly benefited through
his sincere and active membership. As the architect of his own fortune he
builded wisely and well and by his enterprise overcame all obstacles and
difficulties, advancing step by step to a place of prominence and prosperity. He
recognized no old age retirement and was active in the industrial world to the
day of his death, which occurred October 14, 1904, when he was sixty-nine years
of age.