Copyright USGenNet Inc., 2012, All Rights Reserved U.S. Data Repository Please read U.S. Data Repository Copyright Statement on this page: Transcribed by Judith Anne Weeks Ancell Submitted by Pam Rietsch for the US Data Repository http://www.us-data.org/ ========================================================================= U.S. Data Repository NOTICE: These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or presentation by any other organization. Non-commercial organizations desiring to use this material must obtain the consent of the transcriber prior to use. Individuals desiring to use this material in their own research may do so. ========================================================================= Formatted by U.S. Data Repository Chief Archivist, Linda Talbott All of the above information must remain when copied or downloaded. =========================================================================== Portrait And Biographical Album Of Mecosta County, Mich. Containing Portraits And Biographical Sketches of Prominent And Representative Citizens of the County together with Portraits And Biographies of All The Presidents Of The United States And Governors of the State. Also Containing A Complete History of The County, From Its Earliest Settlement To the Present Time. Chicago, Chapman Bros. 1883 =========================================================================== WELLS, Melvin A. =========================================================================== Page 254: Melvin A. Wells, farmer, sec. 26, Deerfield, Tp., is a son of Nelson and Jane (Austin) Wells. The parents were natives of New York and settled in Washtenaw Co., Mich. about the year 1838, afterward going to St. Joseph Co., Mich. There the senior Wells died at Centerville, May 11, 1881. The mother died May 7, 1863. Mr. Wells was born in Freedom, Washtenaw Co., Aug. t, 1848. He remained in the parental home until 22 years of age, occupied in farming and acquiring his education. He was married in Ellenburgh, Clinton Co., N. Y., Dec. 5, 1863, to Mrs. Ellen Jerome Wells, widow of Henry Wells and the eldest child of Lewis and Lucy (Dragoon) Jerome. It falls to the duty of the compiler of personal records to transcribe much that bears the impress of deathless sorrow, but it is rarely incumbent to record the loss of nice children in one household, as in this instance devolves. Mrs. Wells has laid away from her motherly arms, one after another eight infants, a mercifully rare event. Can one believe that her terrible experience lessened the weight of sorrow when another child, the joy and hope of the household, passed away at the dawn of her early girlhood, when life and health seemed assured? Louise B. Wells, born June 14, 1868, died, of diphtheria, Aug. 6, 1881. She is not forgotten; the anniversary of her death is kept and sacredly observed by the parents and sisters to whom her memory will ever be a living presence. Mr. and Mrs. Wells have three children living: Lucy J., born Aug. r, 1866; Idella, Aug. 25, 1870; and Cora, April 21, 1872. Mr. Wells is an earnest Republican and was a sol- --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Page 257: dier of the Union in the war of the Rebellion. He enlisted in the Third Mich. Vol. Inf., Oct. 14, 1864, and received honorable discharge in September 1865. ===========================================================================