Background
Lot was a cooper and a great-great-grandson of Puritan Thomas Wellman, who immigrated to the Massachusetts Bay Colony about 1640.
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Bela Wellman
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Bela left home at age 12 to work on a farm in Plainfield, Connecticut. After farming through the summer, he was able to attend school through the winter and became a clerk in a country store. He formed the cotton textile firm of Lamphier, Wellman and Company of Baltimore, Maryland, in 1842, and became a cotton wholesaler in New Orleans, Louisiana.
Recognizing the business opportunities of the California gold rush, he sailed from Panama on 17 August 1849, and arrived in San Francisco on 8 November.
Upon arrival in San Francisco, Bela erected a building on Kearny Street using lumber he had shipped with him from Panama. He established an auction and commission business in the building under the name of B. Wellman and Company and soon specialized in groceries.
The business continued after the building on Kearny Street burned in 1851. By 1880 the company employed 30 men in a Pacific importing and wholesale business amounting to two million dollars annually.
The company marketed coffee, green beans, and marmalade as Wellman "Flavor Famous" Foods through the first half of the 20th century.
The large red neon WELLMAN COFFEE sign was a mid-20th century San Francisco landmark from San Francisco Bay. Wellman assisted organizing the San Francisco Committee of Vigilance, and two alleged murderers from the Hounds gang were hanged on his property. The Hounds were former Mexican-American War soldiers from New York City who hounded Latin American and Chinese people through thievery and extortion.
Bela married Ruth Anna Harker at Monterrey, California on 18 May 1862.
They had eight children born in San Francisco. The Bela Wellman memorial grove was established in Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park in 1944.
Achievements
Membership
Their eldest son, William Bela Wellman (born 7 June 1864), became the senior member of after his father died in Fruitvale, California, on 31 January 1887.
Connections
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Born
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Died
January 31, 1887 (aged 67) -
Nationality
United States -
Political Party
Republican party