Person Sheet


Name Absalom Wells
Birth 1812, Paxton Twnshp, Ross Co., Ohio
Father Levi Wells (1792-1877)
Mother Susannah Teter (1793-~1865)
Spouses
1 Mary Galland
Birth abt 1812
Children David (~1836-)
Susannah (~1836-)
Elijah (~1842-)
Nancy B. (~1843-)
George (~1845-)
Isaac (~1849-)
Matilda (~1850-)
Thompson "Tamson" (~1850-)
Phebe Ann (~1854-)
Henry (~1856-)
Absalom B. (~1859-)
Samuel
Notes for Absalom Wells
Census 1850 Distric 29, Lee Co., Iowa
1195 1201 Absalom Wells 37 M Farmer 100 Oh
Mary 37 F Oh
David 14 M Oh
Elijah 8 M Oh
Nancy 7 F OH
George 5 M Oh
Grace 2 M Iowa
Samson ) twin 5/12 F Iowa
Matilda )
Susannah Galland 13 F Mo
Susannah Wells 14 F Oh

Census 1860 Jackson, Putnam Co., Missouri
1089 959 Absalom Wells 45 M farmer 400 600 O.
Mary 45 F O.
Nancy 19 F O.
Geo. 15 M farm laborer O.
Isaac 11 M Iowa
Thompson 9 M Iowa
Phebe 6 F Iowa
Henry 4 M Iowa
Absalom 1 M Mo.
Absolem Wells and His Extended Story
1812-1892 , Ohio, Iowa, Missouri, Idaho, Oregon

     Absolem Wells was born in Ohio in 1812, the son of Levi Wells and Susanah Teeter. Absolem and his wife Mary Galland Wells and family left Putnam County, Missouri, in the spring of 1864 in an emigrant train of 135 wagons, arriving in Boise late in September of 1864. This was the so-called ABig Missouri Train that also brought the David Lamme family to Idaho. The Wells family had moved before, first from Union County, Ohio to Lee County, Iowa about 1850, and from there to Missouri in the late 1850's. Absolem and Mary Wells brought with them to Idaho many children, George, Isaac, Tamron sp, Thompson, Phebe Ann, Henry and Absolem B. Also, probably in the wagon train were Robert Smith, married to their daughter Nancy. Asa L Womack, married to another daughter named Susannah, was serving in the Civil War and he and his family would join the others in Idaho after the war.
     When Wells staked his seven yoke of oxen and made camp at the present site of 8th and Main Streets in Boise, It caused quite a stir. Absolem Wells brought with him a commodity in vvery short supply in 1864: daughters of marriageable age. No doubt noting this fact, the city fathers in Boise offered him a building lot for free if he would settle there. But, as his youngest son, Absolem B Wells, told the Statesman in the 1930's, the Wells family had twelve mouths to feed, so they did not stay in Boise where work was scarce, but went on to Bannack City (later Idaho City), where there was work for all, even the boys. Of course, daughters from decent families were even more welcome in the mining district than in Boise.
     After the 1865 fire in Idaho City, Wells moved to Placerville and ran a boarding house that summer. In September, a daughter Miss T (Tamron sp) Wells, married Perry Fairchild, one of the earliest to arrive in the Basin and who had spent the winter of 1862-1863 at Horseshoe Bend. That fall (1865), Wells and his family moved to a place along the south side of the Payette River between Emmett and Horseshoe Bend, later known as the Anderson Ranch.
     For the next thirteen years, the extended Wells family was a major presence in and around Horseshoe Bend. After living in Oregon for a while, Asa and Susanna Womack moved to Horseshoe Bend with their eight children and set up a blacksmith shop there. Isaac AIke Wells married and brought his wife with three children to the Bend and took up blacksmithing too. Robert and Nancy Smith ran the halfway house (twelve mile house) on the Harris toll-road.
     Absolem Wells sons-in-law were substantial men in their own right. Elias Fleming was born about 1832 in Pennsylvania and came to the Boise Basin in 1863 or 1864. He had owned the sawmill and a grist mill at the mouth of Shafer Creek in Horseshoe Bend since 1866. He also owned 40 acres at the mouth of Shafer Creek and a good orchard. Elias and Phoebe Ann's first child William Edward AEd Fleming, was born in July 1869. In May 1871 Elias was appointed postmaster to succeed Hank Clark. who had resigned. He served in this capacity until about the end of 1881; his successor was appointed in April 1882. Daughters Annie M. AMaude, Mary M AMame, and Maggie E. APeg Fleming were born in Horseshoe Bend in 1872, 1875 and 1878 respectively.
     Asa Lorenzo Womack was born April 5, 1833 in Shelby, Illinois to Southern parents, Green Womack and Agnes Cunningham. He was a blacksmith, a Democrat and a Union soldier, who left his family in Missouri after the war to join his brother-in-law, Ike Wells, in Oregon. Womack and Wells worked at blacksmithing and mining until Asa had saved enough money to send for Susanna and children. Asa and Susannah had eight children in 1880 age 22 to 3 months. Their children were named Jethro, Elihu, Isaac, Mary A, Nancy, Absalom, and Asa, and their was an unnamed baby as well. The Womack family was in Missouri until about 1865, then in Oregon until 1868 and Idaho after that. Asa had a younger brother, Alexander Selkirk Womack, who came to Idaho together with his wife and sixteen children. Alex set up his blacksmith shop in Emmett, and his descendents are still there.
     Ike and Lizzie Wells came to Horseshoe Bend about 1875, when Lizzie was about twenty and Ike was 26. In Horseshoe Bend, Ike established a blacksmith shop and worked as a logger. In 1880 Ike and his family lived betwen the Fleming and Womack familied near the mouth of Shafer Creek. The Wells children were George, born about 1874, Bertha, born about 1877 and Albert, born about 1879. Ike's arrival in the Bend was mentioned in a report to the Idaho World: " Mr. Isaac Wells is putting up a blacksmith shop here, and will soon be prepared to do the work for the neighborhood. Heretofore we have had to go four miles over a very bad road to get our work done, and sometimes make three or four trips and then not get it, which is quite annoying and a great loss of time."
     Robert J Smith, Nancy Wells husband, was Kentuckian, born about 1830. Little detail is known about Smith or whether the Smiths had children. No children were mentioned in news accounts or in the census.
     The old folks, Absolem and Mary Wells were becoming feeble, so Mr. Wells sold his ranch below Mountour in 1874 to Elias Anderson and moved with his ailing wife to Snake River. Mary suffered from a bad heart. About 1876, the Smith family moved back east, but they returned in November 1877 to live again on Harris Creek Toll house, probable to be closer to Nancy's parents. Mary Galland Wells died in 1878 at her daughter's home at the Twelve Mile House and is buried in the Horseshoe Bend Pioneer Cemetery. Her obituary said that when she died she had eight living children and twenty grandchildren, most of whom were in Idaho. Absolem then came to live with the Smith's at the halfway house and helped run the hotel there.
     In October 1879 Nancy Wells Smith went to San Francisco for an operation on a tumor and died during the operation. Robert Smith died at the Harris Creek Toll House in May 1881. About then, the entire family picked up and moved to Wood River, where their were reports of new gold discoveries. Fleming sold his sawmill to Asa Womack, who physically moved the mill to Wood River. Asa and his wife Susanna and their eight children moved with the mill, together with Ike Wells and his family, George Wells and the Flemings. By December 1881 Fleming was in tax arrears in Horseshoe Bend for 25 acres, one horse, five cows and one wagon, so he was probably gone by then. Old Absolem Wells went with them, and died in Hailey in 1881. George Wells died suddenly in Hailey in 1890, and E. E. Fleming died there in 1892.
References:
All Along the River, page 145-146, which mistakenly attributes the elopement to Ed Fleming, Elias and Phobe Ann's son. When the Wells and Fleming Families moved away from Horseshoe Bend in 1881, Ed Fleming was only twelve, hardly of an age to elope and the Wells family had sold the ranch at Mountour in 1874 when Ed was five. Mills did not know why Anne's father opposed the match, speculated that it was hard for him to face the thought of his only daughter leaving. This was no doubt true, if she was keeping house. But Elias E Fleming was thirty-six and Anne Wells was only fourteen or fifteen when they married, so that my have been the parents objection.
All Along the River, page 145, quoting an article in the Statesman sometime in the 1930's by A. B. Wells.
Boise News, April 23, 1864, which listed a letter being held for him at the Wells Fargo office in Centerville. Much of the newspaper in the early months of the gold rush was taken up with lists of unclaimed letter. These lists were valuable in determining when a particular person arrived.
All Along the River, page 74
Idaho World, January 26, 1876. The competing establishmen referred to is that of Lee Dougherty who had leased Judge Moore's place at the forks of the Shafer and Harris Creeks and set up a blacksmith shop. Notice how the correspondent managed to disparage both Lee's shop and Felix Harris road.
This information shared with David and Lloyd Ann Fairchild by Kit Parker. Thank you very much! 2008
Last Modified 11 Sep 2011 Created 24 Apr 2016 using Reunion for Macintosh

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