HISTORY OF KENTUCKY AND KENTUCKIANS, E. Polk Johnson, three volumes,
Lewis Publishing Co., New York & Chicago, 1912. Common version, Vol. III,
pp. 1212-13.   [Jefferson County]

W. PRINCE WELLS--The present is eminently a practical age.  We live in a
busy work-a-day world and the masses of the people are chiefly concerned
in the affairs of every-day life.  Great intellects bind themselves to
consideration of industrial matters rather than to questions of
state-craft.  We are interested to a great extent in inventions than in
art, and the sciences which can be utilized in the creation of wealth and
the building up of industries receive the greater share of our attention.
The factories and workshops, the multiplied and equipped lines of
transportation, the great warehouses, stores and public buildings are the
evidences of physical progress and prosperity, and the man who stands at
the head and as the representative of a great concern is the man who is a
leader in the events and great interests of the day.  Such a man is the
subject of our sketch.
     W. Prince Wells, the state representative of Kentucky for the Rambler
automobiles and bicycles, with headquarters at 781-724 Fourth avenue,
Louisville, was born in Bloomfield, Spencer county, Kentucky, on January
18, 1866.  He is the son of Jesse Stone Wells, who was born in Spencer
county, Kentucky, in 1837, and was the son of William Wells, who with his
brother Samuel were pioneers of Fort Wayne, Allan county, Indiana, they
having settled there during the days when the early comers were in constant
danger from the savage Indians, when incessant vigilance was the watchword
and the depredations of this stealthy foe more to be dreaded than any other
form of danger, but despite their care Samuel, the brother of William, was
captured by the Indians and put to death by having his heart cut out.
William, the grandfather of W. Prince, came into Kentucky about the year
1815.  William Wells' mother was a Scotch woman of the Prince family.
William settled in Spencer county, Kentucky, and there spent the remainder
of his life.  He married a Miss Alexander, who was a native of Kentucky,
and to them were born three daughters and one son, as follows: Elizabeth
married Dr. George W. Foreman, of near Bardstown, Kentucky.  She died in
her seventeenth year.  Rebecca Prince married Dr. Bemis Wooden, of
Fairfield, Spencer county, and died in July, 1909, aged eighty-two years.
Sallie married Pitts Stallard, Spencer county, Kentucky, and is seventy
years of age.
     Jesse Stone Wells was a merchant at Bloomfield previous to the war
between the states.  In early days he was in the steamboat trade between
Louisville and New Orleans.  He was a strong sympathizer with the Southern
cause during the Civil war, and gave freely of his means to the support of
the Confederacy.  After the war he engaged in merchandising at Eminence,
Kentucky, where he continued until 1879, when he came to Louisville and
died in 1880, at 538 South Fourth street, which old residence now is owned
by his son Prince.  He married Mary Casey, who was born in Nelson county,
Kentucky, and belonged to the Casey family of that county.  Her parents
died soon after coming into Kentucky and she is now residing in Denver,
Colorado, being in her sixty-eighth year, and enjoying good health.  The
children of Jesse Stone Wells and Mary Casey, his wife, were: Katie, who
married Dr. H. C. Stinson, of Arkansas, now superintendent of the Arkansas
State Asylum for the Insane; Ida Stone, who married A. P. Niles, of Denver,
Colorado, and who died in 1910; W. Prince Wells; and Samuel L., who resides
in Denver, Colorado, with his mother.
     W. Prince Wells, the immediate subject of our sketch, spent his
boyhood days in Louisville, and went to work when he was about fourteen
years old.  The first five years were spent between the New York and
White's dry goods stores in this city.  He then found it expedient to
direct his energies along another channel of enterprise, so went on the
road exhibiting and selling bicycles, and is a pioneer in that line. When
he began his work in the bicycle line the old high-wheel machine was in
vogue, but he soon saw the impracticability of the old style and advocated
the building of a wheel more practicable and safe.  Just as soon as the
manufacturer of the "safety" wheel was begun, Mr. Wells returned to
Louisville and established himself in the bicycle business.  That was in
1890, so for a period of twenty years he has been in the bicycle business
and is now the pioneer in that line.  When the automobile business was in
its infancy Mr. Wells had the distinction of being the first representative
identified with that important line of enterprise in this state, and in
1901 he became the Kentucky representative of the Rambler Corporation.
For twenty-eight years he has been connected with the Rambler Company in
handling bicycles and automobiles.
     In 1900 Mr. Wells erected a store for the handling of bicycles at
538 Fourth street, and in 1905 he built his garage at 718-720 Fourth,
which is a three and two story brick, 50 x 200 feet, with a floor space of
about 26,000 feet, which is the largest garage in the state of Kentucky.
     Mr. Wells is prominent in business clubs, being a member of the
Louisville Automobile Club, is president of the Automobile Dealers
Association, and a member of the Commercial Club.  He married Rosina L.
Heuse, who was born in Louisville, Kentucky, the daughter of Samuel Heuse,
retired, of Louisville.  To Mr. and Mrs. Wells one daughter has been
born, Princess Ethel Wells, who graduated from Semple College in the class
of 1910.  Mrs. Wells is a member of the Lutheran church, but the Wells
family are all Baptists.
     Just as the value of a farm is estimated by its products, or a system
by its results, so is a man fairly measured by his achievements and Mr.
Wells has every reason to be satisfied with his own.

Wells Alexander Foreman Wooden Stallard Casey Stinson Niles Heuse
=
Nelson-KY Spencer-KY Fort_Wayne-Allan-IN Eminence-Henry-KY
Denver-Denver-CO AR

http://www.rootsweb.com/~kygenweb/kybiog/jefferson/wells.wp.txt