Sarah Frances Wells (1861-1934) is my great grand aunt (I'm persuaded that the proper term is grand--not great--aunt). She was the daughter of William (1820-1894) and Talitha C. (maiden name Mynes, 1833-1916) Wells, both of whom were born in West Virginia (actually, it was part of Virginia when they were born and at the time they moved West). I am not certain what year the family first moved but the move from Warrick Co., IN. to Greene Co. described in the following account took place in March of 1865. According to my great grandfather Jim Wells's obituary William Wells and family "came to Lyons from Virginia more than eighty five years ago". Grandpa Jim having died in 1938 this places the possible date of the family's departure from Virginia at 1853 or before (Sarah's account makes it plain they were in Lyons itself until much later). Sarah was born in Warrick Co., Indiana in 1861. For the dates of the other siblings mentioned see The Descendants of William Wells. Not mentioned is a brother, Robert D. Wells, who died as an infant. I found this account tucked in my grandmother Nellie Wells Mannan's composition book. It is handwritten, and appears to be part of a letter, probably sent to my grandmother. The last page ends rather abruptly, but as the other side of the last page is blank that appears to be all there was. The account was probably written sometime in the late 1920's or early 1930's--there is a possibility that what I have is a copy of an original, though I doubt it. In deference to the fact that this was not prepared for publication I have made some changes in punctuation and capitalization , but I've left the spelling intact. Below the letter you will find some notes and a copy of Sarah's obituary--JDM.
Sarah Frances Wells was born on Oct -2-1861 in Warrick Co Ind. about 20 mil. North of Evansville. Lynnville being our P.O..
In the fall of 1864 my father came to Greene Co. and bought the land on which stands our old home. There was only a log cabin on it then. In Mar. 1865 he with the family moved into the cabin on which he had the previous fall had a new roof put on. We sat out in the covered wagons while he went to investigate the condition of the cabin inside. The men he hired to put on the roof let most of the old roof fall onto the clabboard loft so he threw the loft and dirt down and swept out, then we went in with our few belongings. The roads were almost impassable at that time of year and our furniture must be left behind. There was no furniture nearer than Carlisle, so for six weeks Mama cooked on our big fireplace, and we ate off a large goods box. The ones that had formerly lived there had left an old cord bedstead and another one made by boring big auger holes in the wall and making a frame to hold up the bed, so we got on very well, till with the warm Spring days the bedbugs came to life. Then Mama had quite a job to get rid of them in the daubed cracks in a log cabin. We were surrounded with woods on North, West, and East. On the South was a partly cleared 10 acres, but logs were so thick on the ground we could step from one to another. So we had to have a log rooling and burning before a crop could be raised.
My father got the crop in, then began clearing more ground. The Second Fall he began to haul material from Ellriver bottom near Worthington to build a house. One load a day, so it was a slow job. But at the end of three yrs. we moved into our new home, leaving the cabin in which had come to the family both sadness and joy. A short time after we moved Sister Agnes, six years old, was badly burned by falling backwards in a kettle of hot water. Her burns were better, then she took typhoid fever and died in July. The following July brother Jim was born. That made us rejoice as there were three girls and no boy. Some say a child can't remember things very young, I was only 3 1/2 years old when we moved and I know all that I have told you and more. I remember we had a little black dog with a white ring around his neck--we called him Ring. About noon the second day on our move we came to Patoka River and had to ferry across. While we were getting into the boat Ring decided he did not like it, so started back home. Father got on a horse and tryed to overtake but could not. Ring went back to where we stayed all night, and the neighbors that helped us move found him there on their way home and took him back to Warrick Co., but we lost our pet. Then I remember how sister Mary cried because she had no church or Sunday school to go to; she was 12 years old. Another thing I remember was the mosquitos were so bad they had to make a smokey fire in a kettle in the cabin of evenings to run them out so we could sleep. Screens had not been thought of then.
The summer I was five I went to my first school which was in a log cabin that stood where Mr. Sutphins house is now. It was a subscription school taught by Louisa Wagoner, a widow, her husband was related to our Wagoners. Our seats was punchions, holes bored in each end and legs stuck in. Our writing desk was a wide plank put up like a shelf on one side of the room. By the time I was six there was a new school house built, and (it had) plank seats made with backs to them, and glass windows to give us light, and stoves to warm the room. But we had to wade snow and wind for half a mile and Mary much farther. We never saw an overshoe, had to wear heavy cowhide shoes and home knit yarn hose, or stockings are (what) we then called them.
There was no church nearer than Linton. Occasionally a minister came to the school house and preached a few nights.
I could tell you much more but time forbids. Will say I have seen Lyons grow from a cabin to what it is now. Used to be called Mudsock, and it was, had to hitch two teams to a wagon to get to Lyons.
Sarah's father, my great great grandfather William Wells, was one of the founders of the Lyons Methodist Episcopal Church (what is now the United Methodist Church was once split into the Methodist Episcopal and Southern Methodist Churches) and also the founder of the Wells School, which no longer exists, but which my Grandma Nell and her sisters attended. According to my great grandfather Jim Wells's obituary William was known as "Uncle Billy". The last of William's grandchildren to live in Lyons, Indiana was my grand aunt Mildred Mary Wells; I believe the home she lived in until her death in 1976 had been inherited from Sarah F. Wells. A few of our Wells descended cousins still live in Greene County.
Beyond the mention in this letter I have no information on our family's connection to the Wagoners. If anyone has information on this please let me know! Would also like to know who Mr. Sutphins is.
Punchions: I thought I couldn't being reading this right, but as it happens this is a real word: Puncheon a slab of timber, or a piece of a split log, with the face roughly dressed, used for flooring, etc.. (American College Dictionary).
Lynnville is in the Northernmost part of Warrick County, which has its south border on the Ohio River. If they were 20 miles north of Evansville, which is in Vanderburgh County, west of Warrick, then they were probably near the border between the two counties.
Lyons remains a small town; it is a few miles Southwest of the Greene Co. Seat of Bloomfield. The last time I was there the main difference I could see from my younger memories (we used to visit my Aunt Mildred a great deal) were the satellite dishes poking up here and there. The town was platted (surveyed and laid out) in 1869 and changed from its original name of Mudsock in honor of the county auditor and treasurer Squire Joe Lyon. The West Fork of White River runs quite near the town.
Linton is a larger town in far western Greene Co.
What Sarah spells as "Ellriver" is the Eel River, a tributary of the White River which it joins around the town of Worthington in north central Greene County.
The Patoka River, which they probably crossed in Pike County, splits from the Wabash River off the western border of Indiana (with Illinois) in Gibson County, and flows east until it feeds into Patoka Lake which is in Dubois, Orange, and Crawford Counties.
Commentary by J.D. Mannan