THOMAS C. WELLS is an old and honored resident of Riley County, and a man whose citizenship is an honor to any community. He first came to Kansas in the spring of 1855, reaching Pottawatomie County on the 1st of April and making a settlement there, sojourning, however. but a year before coining to this county where he has since remained. He has an extended acquaintance and is highly regarded for his many fine qualities of mind and character. His wife, who has also been a resident of this State for many years, shares in the esteem in which he is held, being a lady of intelligence and refinement, possessing a kindly nature and the thrifty ways of one who looks well to the comfort of her household.

The paternal ancestors of our subject were from England, the first one of the name born in America being Thomas Wells, who was born April 18, 1755, and died April 20, 1829. His son, Thomas R. Wells. was born Oct. 20, 1784, and died Oct. 31, 1853. The next in the direct line of descent was Thomas Potter Wells, the father of our subject, who was born in April, 1809. and died in Kingston, R. I., Aug. 31, 1884. During his life he was connected with the Narragansett Bank, the Wakefield Bank, the Wakefield Savings Bank, the Landholders Bank of Kingston, and the Savings Bank at the same place. He became connected with the Wakefield Bank at its formation, in 1835, and was chosen its cashier. He was also the Treasurer of the Wakefield Savings Bank, and for a number of years before his death, was Cashier of the Savings Bank at Kingston. He was a fine book-keeper, an expert accountant, and a man of thorough honesty and unswerving integrity. His life was that of a consistent Christian, and he was actively identified with church work, being, like his father before him a Deacon in a Congregational Church at Kingston. At his death the pulpit and press, of the place in which he he had lived a long, useful and honorable life, paid eloquent and deserved tributes to his memory.

Thomas P. Wells was married three times. His first wife and the mother of our subject, was Sarah E. Clarke. who was born in Rhode Island, June 10. 1814, and was, like her husband, of English descent. She died June 16, 1834, being but a few days past twenty years of age, and leaving two children, our subject, who was but two years old, being the first born; Frances E. is living in Rochester. Pa.; she has been married twice, her first husband. Samuel J. Cross, having died a number of years ago, and her second husband, John Davis, quite recently. She is the mother of six living children.

The second wife of Mr. Wells, with whom he was united March 22, 1836, was Miss Clarissa C. Sherman. She died in 1845, leaving two children: George H., born April 21. 1837, and Theodore B., born Feb. 2, 1840. George is a member of the wholesale grocery firm of John S. Gould & Co., Chicago. He married Miss Dora Wright, and they have five living children. Theodore is Secretary of the Chicago Gas Trust Company. He married Miss Mary Johnson and they have one son.

The third wife of T. P. Wells was Miss Julia E. Johnson, a native of Connecticut, and the rites of wedlock were celebrated between them Sept. 31, 1848. The union resulted in the birth of two children: Herbert J., born July 13, 1850, and Helen M., born Nov. 3, 1861. Herbert resides in Kingston. R. I., and is President of the Rhode Island Hospital Trust Company. He married Miss Emily Perry; thev have five children. Helen is unmarried and lives with her mother in Kingston, R. I.

The subject of this sketch was born in Hopkinton, R. I. April 26, 1832, his early years being spent in South Kingston, where he received a good common-school education, which was supplemented by a two-years' course at the East Greenwich Academy. With an excellent English education Mr. Wells has kept pace with his opportunities in intellectual development. After leaving school he worked in a printing office two years, at the expiration of that time leaving his native State for Kansas. As has been before noted, he spent a few months in Pottawatomie County, and then identified himself with the citizens of Riley County. He took up 160 acres of land in Manhattan Township, upon which he remained ten years, and then selling out bought fifty acres on section 1, three miles northwest of the town of Manhattan, which he has since operated as a fruit and dairy farm. The place is carefully and profitably cultivated, and contains adequate improvements. The residence is a pleasant and comfortable one, where genial hospitality, good cheer, and refined pleasures abound. A carefully selected library of several hundred volumes furnish Mr. and Mrs. Wells an intercourse with the master minds of several centuries, while the best of current literature affords them a broad outlook over the world's affairs, and an understanding of the latest theories and developments in science and art.

The marriage of Mr. Wells was celebrated in Manhattan Township, Oct. 30, 1856, the bride being Miss Eleanor S. Bemis, daughter of Ezra and Lavinia (Woolson) Bemis.

Of anti-slavery principles, Mr. Wells has been and is a stanch Republican, though not an officeholder nor a seeker for public honors. Both he and his wife are members of the Congregational Church, and he, like three generations of ancestors, is a Deacon and is actively identified with church and Sunday-school work.