Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 10.djvu/379

 WELLS

WELLS

A^J C- M^

Lawrence Scientific school, Harvard university, during its first year, and was graduated, S.B., 185L He was lecturer at Groton academy, 1851, and in 1857 was engaged in book publishing. During the financial stress of 1864 lie issued

a pamphlet entitled

" Our Burden and our Strength," to show liow the United States might meet the enormous ex- penses of the war. It was so lucid, so sound and so new, that it was circu- lated in America, England, France and Germany, and in 1865 Lincoln called ]Mr. Wells into consulta- tion, appointed him chairman of a reve- nue commission, and in 1866, when the commis- sion was dissolved, he continued as special com- missioner of revenue, an office he held until 1871, when it was discontinued because of the antag- onism of the secretary of the treasury. During liis investigation of import duties in Europe in 1867, he became an advocate of free trade, for which radical change Horace Greeley accused him of having been bought by British gold, greatly lessening his influence in this country. In 1871 he was appointed cliairman of the New York state commission for investigating the sub- ject and the laws of local taxation; was a delegate from Connecticut to the Democratic national conventions of 1872 and 1880; president of the Democratic state convention, 1875, and in 1876 was unsuccessful Democratic candidate from Connecticut for the 45th congress. He was prominent in financial and railroad circles, being a receiver or trustee of several lines and bringing each out successfully. He was elected a mem- ber of the Cobden club in 1870, and became an honorary member of the Royal Statistical Society of England, 1871, and lectured on economic sub- jects at Yale in 1872. In 1874 he was elected to the seat in the French Academy of Political Science, made vacant by the death of J. S. Jlill; was chosen president of the American Social Science association in 1875, and a foreign associ- ate of the Reale Academia dei Lincei of Italy in " 1877. He was chosen president of the New Lon- don County Historical society in 1880. and be- came president of the Free Trade league in 1881. Mr. Wells received from the Berkshire Medical college the honorary degree of M.D. in 1863. from Williams that of LL.D. in 1871, from Oxford that of D.C.L. in 1874, and from Harvard

that of LL.D. in 1889. He assisted in the History and Sketches of Williams College (1847); published the Annual Scientific Discovery, 1849-66; compiled several elementary scientific books; wrote many pamphlets on economic sub- jects, and is the author of: Year Book of Agri- culture (1856); Wells's Science of Common Tilings (1856); Report of the U.S. Revenue Commission (1866); RejJorts of the U.S. Special Commissioner of Revenue (4 vols., 1866-69); Robinson Crusoe's 2Ioney (1876); Our Merchant Marine (1882); -.4 Primer of Tariff Reform (1884); Practical Econ- omics (1885); AStudy of Mexico (1887); .4 Short and Simple Catechism (1888); Relation of Tariff to Wages (1888), and Recent Economic Change (1889). Mr. Wells was married, first: May, 1860, to Mary Sanford,. daughter of James S. and Elizabeth (Lee) Dwight of Springfield, Mass., and they had one son, David Dwight Wells, who died in 1900; and secondly, June 10, 1879, to her sister, Ella Augusta Dwight, who died Dec. 12, 1898. Wells died in Norwich, Conn., Nov. 5, 1898.

WELLS, Heber Manning, governor of Utah, was born in Salt Lake Cit}% Utah, Aug. 11, 1859. He was recorder of Salt Lake City, 1882-90; a member of the board of public works of the city, 1890 and 1893, and of the convention which framed the constitution of Utah, 1891, and Republican governor of Utah, 1895-1900, being re-elected for the term expiring in 1904. Governor Wells was married, June 5, 1901, to Emily Katz of Salt Lake.

WELLS, Henry, expressman, was born in New Hampshire, Dec. 12, 1805. He entered the express business when a boy, and in 1843 became interested in a daily express between Albany and Buffalo. In 1844, with W. G. Fargo, he estab- lislied an express between Buffalo and Detroit, extending it to St. Louis, and later to Chicago. He opened offices in London and Paris in 1846, and in 1850, when the large exj^ress companies merged into the American Express company, he was elected president of the corporation. In 1851, with Fargo and others, under the name of Wells, Fargo and company, he operated an ex- press between New York and San Francisco, Cal., via the Isthmus of Panama. He gave $150,000 to found Wells Female college at Aurora, N.Y. He died in Glasgow, Scotland, Dec. 10, 1878.

WELLS, Horace, dentist, was born in Hart- ford. Vt., Jan, 21, 1815. He prepared for the dental profession in Boston, Mass., 1834-36; prac- tised in Hartford, Vt., 1836-41, and 1843-46; was in Boston in partnership with Dr. W. T. G. Mor- ton, 1841-43; and after 1847 practised in New York city. In 1840 Dr. Wells became convinced of the anaesthetic quality of nitrous oxide gas for preventing pain in dental operations. This idea he put into practice, being himself the sub- ject of his first experiment, and in January, 1845,