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430 ing the express business in the far west, and he continued an active officer of that company until its management was transferred to western capital- ists after the completion of the Transcontinental railroad. In 1860 the American express company was reorganized with a capital of $1,000,000, and he acted as its president until 1868. He gave $150,000 to found and endow Wells female college at Aurora, N. Y., one of the first collegiate insti- tutions to be established in this country for the higher education of women.

WELLS, Henry Horatio, lawyer, b. in Roches- ter, N. Y., 17 Sept., 1823. He was educated at Romeo academy, Mich., studied law in Detroit with Theodore Romeyn, was admitted to the bar in 1846, and in 1854-'6 was a member of the legisla- ture. He entered the army in September, 1862, as colonel of the 26th Michigan infantry, and served until September, 1866. In February, 1863, he was made provost-marshal-general of the defences south of Potomac river, which office he held until the close of the war. In May, 1865, he received the brevet of brigadier-general of volunteers, and, set- tling in Virginia in 1868-'9, was military governor of that state. He was the Republican candidate for governor in the latter year, but was defeated by Gilbert C. Walker. On the assassination of President Lincoln, he took charge of the investi- gation in Washington that resulted in the capture of the conspirators, and afterward he was associate counsel in the criminal proceedings against Jeffer- son Davis for treason. In 1870-'l he was counsel, with Henry A. Wise, in the Chohoon and Ellyson mayoralty case, during the trial of which he was almost fatally injured by the falling of a gallery, crowded with people, in the capitol at Richmond. In 1871-'2 he was U. S. attorney for the eastern district of Virginia, and he then removed to Wash- ington, where, in 1875-'80, he was U. S. attorney for the District of Columbia.

WELLS, Horace, dentist, b. in Hartford. Vt, 21 Jan., 1815 ; d. in New York city, 24 Jan., 1848. He was educated at New England academies, and in 1834 began the study of dentistry in Boston. In 1836 he opened an office in Hartford, Conn., where he soon gained a lucrative practice. His attention was early turned to the desirability of preventing pain during the extraction of teeth. After unsuc- cessfully experimenting with various narcotics he expressed his belief in the efficacy of nitrous oxide in 1840 ; but it was not until 1844, when that agent had been administered publicly in Hartford to several persons by Dr. Gardiner Q. Colton in his lecture on laughing-gas, that he became convinced of the practicability of its use. On the following day, 11 Dec, 1844, he had a tooth extracted from his own mouth without experiencing any pain while under the influence of the gas. and he at once began to use it in the extraction of teeth from other persons. Subsequently other dentists in Hartford became convinced of its value and used it. He went to Boston in January, 1845, for the Eurpose of laying his discovery more prominently efore the profession, and communicated his ex- perience to Dr. William T. G. Morton, Dr. Charles T. Jackson, and Dr. John C. Warren. Dr. Warren invited him to lecture before his class at the Har- vard medical school and to administer the gas to a patient ; but the experiment failed, as the subject was only partially anaesthetized, and in consequence Mr. Wells was Kissed by the students, who pro- nounced him a charlatan and his gas a humbug. Dr. Morton had been his pupil in Hartford, and by his aid established himself in Boston. Subse- quently, when he and Dr. Jackson laid claim to the discovery of anaesthesia and in 1846 applied for a patent, Mr. Wells remonstrated, stating the re- sults of his own experiments and introducing the testimony of the medical profession in Hartford ; but to no avail, for a patent was issued to Dr. Mor- ton in November, 1840. Later, when Dr. Jackson and Dr. Morton submitted their claims to the In- stitute of France, Mr. Wells at once sailed for Eu- rope in order to present his statement before that body also ; but without success. He removed to New York city in 1847, where he tried to impress on the community the validity of his discovery. Mr. Wells was arrested on a charge of throwing vitriol on the clothes of women in the street, and this so aggravated a mental disorder with which he had been attacked that he committed suicide. He published a pamphlet entitled " A History of the Application of Nitrous-Oxide Gas. Ether, and other Vapors to Surgical Operations" (1847). A bronze statue by Truman H. Bartlett has been erected to his memory by the citizens of Hartford in Bushnell park. Charles T. Jackson, Crawford W. Long, William T. G. Morton, and Horace Wells are the claimants for the discovery of anaesthesia. See " An Examination of the Question of Anaesthe- sia" (Boston, 1859) and "An Inquiry into the Ori- gin of Modern Anaesthesia " (Hartford, 1867). WELLS, John, lawyer, b. in Cherry Valley, Ot- sego co., N. Y., in 1770; d. in Brooklyn, N. Y., 7 Sept., 1823. Owing to the massacre of his entire family by the Indians in Cherry Valley, he was in 1778 placed in charge of his aunt, who took him to New York city, and he was gradu- ated at Princeton in 1788. He then stud- ied law with Ed- ward Griswold, was admitted to the bar in 1791, and in 1797 was appointed an associate justice of the peace by Gov. John Jay. About this time James Cheetham attacked the Federalists with vigorin "The Amer- ican Citizen" and Mr. Wells replied in the " Evening Post." The ability with which his task was performed led to the belief that Alexander Hamilton was the author, and so well pleased was the latter with their strength that he sought the acquaintance of the younger man. Subsequently Mr. Wells had charge of bringing out the papers known as " The Federalist," although for final revision they passed through the hands of Hamilton. In 1804 Mr. Cheetham attacked the conduct and character of William S. Smith, son-in-law of President John Adams, in his journal, in consequence of which an action for libel was brought against him in the supreme court. Mr. Cheetham secured the services of Mr. Wells as counsel, and, although the latter failed to win the case, his conduct gained for him considerable reputation. After the war of 1812 his argument in the case of Griswold vs. Waddington, in which he took the ground that the war was a dissolution of partnership between the two brothers Waddington, one of whom was a resident of Liverpool and the other of New York, was regarded as one of his best efforts. He was a trustee of the General