Biography of Dr. Charles Wells of Manchester NH
-----------------------------
Information located at http://www.nh.searchroots.com/Manchester
On a web site about GENEALOGY AND HISTORY OF MANCHESTER NEW HAMPSHIRE 
TRANSCRIBED BY JANICE BROWN 
Please see the web site for my email contact.
----------------------------------
The original source of this information is in the public domain, 
however use of this text file, other than for personal use, is 
restricted without written permission from the transcriber 
(who has edited, compiled and added new copyrighted text to same).
========================================================
SOURCE: History of Hillsborough County, New Hampshire 
Philadelphia: J.W. Lewis & Co., 1885
-------------------
page 127
DR. CHARLES WELLS
(by Hon. Charles H. Bartlett)
The subject of this sketch was born at Westminster, VT on the 22d day of
June 1817. His father, Horace Wells, a prosperous, intelligent and
highly respected farmer, was born in Windsor, Conn., June 22, 1776.
After his marriage to Miss Betsy Heath, of Warehouse Point, Conn., he
removed to Vermont, and died at Bellows Falls, in that State, 
April 5, 1829.  His mother afterwards remarried, and died at 
Westmoreland NH February 21, 1879.
  His grandfather, Captain Hezekiah Wells, was born in Windsor, Conn.,
June 25, 1736. He served with distinction in the Revolutionary War and
was a man of much influence and widely esteemed. He died March 8, 1817.
The homestead, which he erected nearly a century and a half ago, is
still in the possession of his descendants.
  His grandmother's maiden name was Sarah Trumbull. His more remote
ancestors were Lamson Wells, born November 7, 1706; Joshua Wells, born
April 10, 1672; and Joshua Sr., born in 1647.  They were all natives of
Windsor,, and no temptation could ever lure them from their ancestral
home.  It will thus be seen that Dr. Wells traced his lineage through
the best of New England ancestry, and no purer blood has descended from
the Pilgrim Fathers to ennoble a people than that which flowed in his
veins.
  Different branches of the Wells family, in this country and in Europe,
have varied the orthography of the name to suit their individual tsates
or circumstances, and few of the old colonial family names show such
varied orthography, but the consanguinity is easily traced, and few
men could claim kindship with a brighter galaxy of names, distinguished
in law, in politics, in science, in theology and in all the fields of
literature and art, than he. Dr. Wells had but one brother, the late
Dr. Horace Wells, of Hartford, Conn., widely and justly celebrated as
the author of modern anaesthesia, to whose memory a beautiful statue
has been erected in the public park of that city. He died in the city
of New York, on the 24th day of January, 1848, at the early age of
thirty-three, while prosecuting the introduction of his discovery into
general use in surgery, as well as in dentistry, in which he made its
first application. His early and untimely death, ,while his wonderful
discovery was yet a matter of uncertain and undetermined importance,
derived him and his family of the fruits which might otherwise have
flowed from what is now universally conceded to be the greatest boon
conferred upon suffering humanity in all the course of time.
  His only sister, Mary E.W. Cole, widow of the late Captain John
Cole, a native of Westmoreland, N.H. but many years a resident of
Medway, Mass., now resides in Chicago, ILL with her only son,
Arthur W. Cole, a promising young architect of that city.
  Dr. Wells received, in his early youth, all the educational advantages
afforded by the public schools at Bellows Falls, VT, to which place his
father removed during his infancy, and here he died April 5, 1829.
After his father's death he received not only the tender and watchful
care of one of the best of mothers, but also the liberal and
intelligent training of a woman as remarkable for her intelligence and
large-mindedness as for her domestic and maternal qualities.  He
further prosecuted his studies under the private tuition of a most
remarkable teacher, Mr. Ballard, of Hopkinton NH, and at the
academies in Walpole NH and Amherst, Mass.
  After the completion of his academic course he entered with
enthusiasm upon the study of medicine, a profession for which by
nature he was most admirably fitted.
  He commenced his profession studies with Dr. Josiah Graves, of
Nashua NH, January 22, 1837, and graduated at the Jefferson Medical
College, in Philadelphia, March 6, 1840, at the early age of twenty-one.
He immediately commenced his professional career at Chili, NY in
partnership with Dr. Lucius Clark; but the field of practice proving
unsatisfactory to him, he removed to Manchester NH in 1842, where he
continued his residence until his death.
  His professional career was highly honorable and eminently
successful. Never a bold and aggressive practitioner, but always content
with the share of patronage that fell to his lot, he enjoyed, in a high
degree, the confidence and respect of his professional brethren, and
never had reason to complain of any want of recognition of his merits
by the people among whom he lived, and who early honored him with their
confidence and their patronage. Such was his professional success, and
such his rare financial skill and judgment, that while in the prime and
vigor of his manhood he found himself so fortunately circumstanced,
financially, as to be relieved of the burden of further professional
labor, and several years ago prior to his decease he quietly withdrew
from active practice, and devoted the last years of his life to the
management of his estate, and to those social enjoyments and domestic
duties and responsibilities which to him were ever the source of his
highest enjoyment and his greatest happiness.
  Mr. Wells was married to Miss Mary M. Smith, December 21, 1847,--
a union which proved remarkably felicitous to both parties.  The widow
survives her lamented husband, who made most generous provision for her
future wants.  No children blessed their union.
  For more than forty years Dr. Wells was an earnest and enthusiastic
member of the Hillsborough Lodge of Odd-Fellows, being one of the 
charter members of the lodge and the last survivor of that little band
who introduced the order in this State. He received all the honors the
order could bestown upon him, and ever gave a willing hand and a
generous and sympathetic heart to its benevolent and charitable work.
Utterly devoid of all political ambition, he took but little part in
public affairs, never seeking, but always declining,, official
preferment. His only service in this direction was as a member of the
Common Council in 1847-48, and as an alderman in 1848-49. He assisted
in making the first city report, and the plan suggested and matured by
him has been in use ever since.  He was a member of Grace Church
(Episcopal), and many years a vestryman and treasurer.
  Dr. Wells was not an ambitious man. He neither sought nor desired
public applause. Self-glorification and aggrandizement were utterly
abhorrent to every element of his nature. The ostentatious show of
wealth not only had no attractions for him, but for it he had the
most supreme contempt, and the seeker after transient notoriety and
ephemeral applause found no favor in his sight. Solid merid and worth
alone weighed with him, and no man was quicker to discover the true
and the genuine or more prompt and earnest in his denunciation of the
false, the sham and the counterfeit.  As a citizen, no man was esteemed
above him. As a neighbor and friend, he filled the measure of every
expectation, and it is no extravagance to say that no citizen of
Manchester ever departed this life more universally esteemed or more 
widely and deeply lamented. A man of fine physique, of striking
prepossessing personal appearance and bearing, gentle, courtly,
dignified, but affable in his demeanor and intercourse with all with
whom he came in contact, he gave offense to none, but won the
affectionate regard, respect and confidence of all.
  Dr. Wells died at his family residence in Manchester, December 28, 
1884, very suddenly, of heart-disease. The first intimation received
by his friends and the public that he was not in his usual apparent
health was the startling announcement of his sudden demise.


(end)