The plot thickens.....
Apparently, our Miss Wells was a direct descendant of A very important original Puritan Pioneer family of The Colonies. Mary was a direct descendant of Gov. Thomas Welles, one of the original Founders of Hartford, Connecticut.
Thomas Welles is the only man in Connecticut's history to hold all four top offices: Governor, Deputy Governor, Treasurer, and Secretary. In 1639, he was elected as the first Treasurer of the Colony of Connecticut, and from 1640–1649 served as the Colony's Secretary. In this capacity, he transcribed the Fundamental Orders of Connecticut into the Official Colony Records on 14 January 1638. This Document was the first written Constitution in North America.
The Welles/Wells Family Lineage is literally a Who's Who of important people.....
* Gideon Welles, the United States Secretary of the Navy 1861–1869, best friend and right Hand of President Abraham Lincoln.
* Sumner Welles, U.S. Undersecretary of State, 1937–1943.
* Daniel H. Wells, was an apostle of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) and the third mayor of Salt Lake City, Utah Territory, United States.
* Henry Wells, founder of the American Express Company, Wells Fargo & Company and Wells College, a nationally recognized private coeducational liberal arts college located in Aurora, Cayuga County, New York, on the eastern shore of Cayuga Lake.
* Wilford Woodruff, the fourth president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) from 1889 until his death in 1898.
* William Welles Hollister, a Californian rancher, entrepreneur and founder of Hollister, California.
[ And just for you Conspiracy Theorist, when President Lincoln lay shot and dying.....Gideon Wells was the person they called to his side. The Welles family was also connected to the Roosevelts. A cousin of Sumner Welles married James "Rosy" Roosevelt, Jr., half brother of future President Franklin D. Roosevelt (FDR). At the age of 10, Welles was entered in Miss Kearny's Day School for Boys in New York City. In September 1904, he entered Groton School in Massachusetts, where he remained for six years. There he roomed with the brother of Eleanor Roosevelt. He served as a page at Franklin D. Roosevelt's wedding to Eleanor in March 1905 at the age of 12. Sumner Welles then went on to become President Roosevelt's U.S. Undersecretary of State, 1937–1943.]
This is just a small sampling of a list that is awe inspiring in it's entirety. It also includes some surprising contemporary figures such as former President Gerald Ford and former First Lady Nancy Reagan.
Miss Mary Wells came from a long line of wealthy and important people....her own family originally moving to Orange, CA to establish a fruit orchard, then moving to Los Angeles with other business endeavors. But the only thing of note I could find on Miss Mary herself was her membership in the National Society of Daughters of the American Revolution. Her brother Henry S. Wells, who also lived in the family residence, lists his occupation on his 1917 Draft Registration as "Bank Clerk". Was he a clerk in his Uncle Henry's Wells Fargo company?
In my brief research of the California branches of the Wells tree, I found they were very much involved in Banking and Land Acquisition/Developement. A very influential, early California family.
All considered....I have to ask....how in the world did Willie Douthit aka Laurence Foreman, a poor uneducated fella running from his captors in New Mexico, end up married into this family?
What is missing from this story?
snif.
