<Captain> William Wells ^{1 2}

  Research Notes:

From http://familytreemaker.genealogy.com/users/s/t/e/Sharon-J-Stevenson/WEBSITE-0001/UHP-0954.html :

HISTORY OF MIDDLEBOURNE, WEST VIRGINIA: Excerpts from "The Tyler Star News--Historical Edition; Vol.75, No. 30, Thursday, Oct 1, 1964; Sistersville, West Virginia. "William Wells, who lived a few miles above Middlebourne was the owner of a number of slaves. The stone house on the farm was completed in 1804 and is probably the oldest house in the community. Stone for the building was quarried on the farm mostly by slave labor and the work required about three years. As soon as the land was cleared, it was planted in tobacco which was the main industry for many years. William Wells deeded one acre of ground to the Methodist Episcopal Society in Nov. 13, 1820 on which a log cabin was erected. It was used as a school house and church for more than fifty years. The building was torn down about 1875, soon after the Methodist Church at Alma was built on its present location. This one acre plot, on which the log house was built was the beginning of Beachwood Cemetery."

FROM THE SAGA OF WILLIAM WELLS, COUNTY PIONEER By Daisy Furbee Wells: Wells Manor near Baltimore, Maryland was William's Birthplace. His father was Benjamin Wells who had five sons, including William. After the Revolution Benjamin moved his family and his slaves to Western Pennsylvania, and later to the norther panhandle of Virginia, where the town of Wellsburg was founded by Benjamin. William married his first wife, Catherine Sellman(Selmon) of Jefferson County, Ohio. They went south, and purchased a small farm with two log cabins, a few miles from Bethany, West Virginia. Around 1798, they explored land further south and eventually purchased 585 acres of land to build their permanent home. In May, 1800, be bartered for a flatboat and brought his wife, eight children and several slaves down the Ohio to a landing near where Sistersville now stands. William Wells was a tireless worker and keen business man. In less than four years, he and his sons and his Negro workmen had built the stone house, hauling the native stone in ox carts from the hollow in the hills back of the farm. The walls of the new home were 18 inches thick, straight and true by plumb-line measurements. On Jan 27,1813, the township of Middlebourne was established and William Wells was the first-named of the seven trustees. Early in the year 1816, sorrow came to the Wells household. On Jan 22, 1816 Catherine Sellman Wells died, leaving her Husband and children numbering eight sons and daughters. She was buried in the small cemetery near the stone house, beside a daughter-in-law, who had died the previous year. Five years after his first wife's death, William married Margaret Ankrom who was 37 years old at the time. He organized the first Court in the home of Charles Wells, his older brother at "Wells Landing', later named Sistersville. Later, he was made Acting Justice of that court, which was moved to Middlebourne. When Squire William's oldest brother, Charles, founder of Sistersville, died in 1829, William was named executor of his estate. William Wells was dignified in appearance; kind and cheerful in manner; wise in judgement; reserved yet forceful in his convictions; a good neighbor and a Christian gentleman.

William married Catherine Sellman, daughter of Thomas Sellman and Ruth Shipley, in 1787 in Fort Pitt, Ohio, Virginia, United States. (Catherine Sellman was born on 17 Sep 1760 in Adams Garden, Baltimore, Maryland, (United States) and died on 22 Jan 1816 in West Virginia, United States.)

William next married Margaret Ankrom on 2 Oct 1821 in Tyler Co., (West) Virginia, United States. (Margaret Ankrom was born on 27 Feb 1786 in Tyler, (West) Virginia, United States and died on 24 Oct 1868 in Tyler, West Virginia, United States.)