Tulare County Biographies

MORGAN J. WELLS

Transcribed by Kathy Sedler

This file is part of the California Genealogy & History Archives
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cagha/index.htm

 
A residence of over fifty years in California entitles Mr. Wells to the name of 
pioneer, and as such he has borne a noble part in bringing about the improved 
conditions which we of the present day enjoy. He was born in Dixon county, 
Tenn., June 15, 1833, the son of Henry Gilbert and Nancy (Wilson) Wells, both 
also natives of that same southern state. Mr. Wells has no knowledge of his 
native state, for he was less than six months old when his parents removed from 
Tennessee and settled in Pope county, Ark. Upon wild and unbroken land which the 
father purchased he improved a fine farm, carrying on general farming and 
stock-raising for several years. Another removal of the family in 1856 brought 
them to California, ox teams being the motive power, and here the parents 
rounded out their useful lives, the father passing away at the age of eighty-one 
years, and the mother when sixty years old.  Mrs. Wells was the daughter of Adam 
Wilson, a native of Ireland, who after his immigration to the United States 
followed farming in Tennessee.
Of the seven children born to Henry G. and Nancy (Wilson) Wells, Morgan J. Wells 
was the sixth child and is now the only one living. Needless to say that his 
educational advantages were meager when it is known that his entire boyhood was 
passed in frontier surroundings. The school he was privileged to attend was a 
rude log affair with shake roof and slab benches, and he was taught to write 
with a quill pen of the teacher's own manufacture. When he was less than twenty 
years of age he was attacked with the gold fever and in the spring of 1852 he 
formed a company and started with ox teams for the Pacific coast. By way of what 
was known as the Cherokee route they went up the Arkansas valley, through Denver 
and along the Platte river to Salt Lake, and from there by way of Humboldt and 
Carson City to Tuolumne county, and from there to Sonora, six months having been 
consumed in the journey. After a year's experience in mining there Mr. Wells 
went to old Millerton, there combining mining and teaming for about three years, 
when he came to Tulare county and for a number of months thereafter he continued 
freighting, hauling lumber from the mountains with ox teams.
The year after coming to Tulare county, in 1857, Mr. Wells was married and 
settled with his wife on the ranch which they now occupy, five miles northwest 
of Visalia. The nucleus of his present property was one hundred and sixty acres 
which he entered from the government. The old shake house which at first adorned 
it gave place in time to a more substantial frame house. Year by year 
improvements have been made upon the property, enhancing its value as well as 
its beauty. Mr. Wells carries on general farming and teaming, making a specialty 
of raising wheat, and he also raises cattle and hogs. Of late years he has given 
some attention to the raising of fruit, and now has a fine family orchard, 
thirty acres alone in prunes, which seem to be especially adapted to this 
locality. As means and opportunity have made it possible Mr. Wells has added to 
his acreage, the home farm now containing two hundred and forty acres, besides 
which he owns what is known as Bone Canyon ranch. eleven hundred acres of land 
fourteen miles northeast of his home ranch. The last-mentioned property is 
devoted almost exclusively to grain and stock-raising. The Wutchumna canal, in 
which Mr. Wells is financially interested, supplies water to his property.
Mention has been made of Mr. Wells' marriage. In maidenhood his wife was Miss 
Catherine Fudge, a native of Tennessee, the daughter of John B. Fudge, a farmer, 
who settled as a pioneer in California in 1856. Six children were born to Mr. 
and Mrs. Wells: Mary, the wife of L. H. Douglass, died at the age of 
twenty-three years, leaving one child, David Roy Douglass, a graduate of the San 
Francisco College of Pharmacy; Sallie is a resident of Visalia ; Susan E. became 
the wife of David Douglass and died in Visalia at the age of thirty-two ; Maggie 
died when eighteen years old; John died when twenty years old; and William Reid 
is a prominent farmer and stockman, having charge of the Bone Canyon ranch. The 
son last mentioned married Linda Pleas, a native of California, and they have 
one son, Donald Morgan.
Politically, Morgan J. Wells is a Democrat, and at one time served as a member 
of the county committee. Elected to the office of sheriff in 1879, in March of 
the following year he took the oath of office and rendered his constituents 
valued service for two years and ten months. While holding this office Mr. Wells 
became associated with a number of celebrated cases, among them being that of 
Ben Harris, a negro, who killed his wife and child. Harris was overtaken in the 
brush by Mr. Wells and his deputies, and being defied by their victim, he was 
shot by one of the deputy sheriffs. Mr. Wells belongs to Visalia lodge No. 128, 
F. & A. M., as does also his son, William R.; and he is also a member of Visalia 
chapter, R. A. M., and the Ancient Order of United Workmen. Mrs. Wells is a 
member of the Methodist Episcopal church. Since 1909 Mr. and Mrs. Wells have 
resided in Visalia, having built a pretty little bungalow suited to their needs 
at No. 423 South Garden street.
 
History of Tulare and Kings Counties, California with Biographical Sketches - 
Los Angeles, Calif., Historic Record Company, 1913, pp. 599-601