Erastus Wells was a 19th-century politician and businessman from Missouri.
Background
Erastus Wells was born near Sacketts Harbor, Jefferson County, N. Y. , the only son among three children of Otis and Mary (Symonds) Wells. Through his farmer father he was descended from Hugh Welles of Essex County, England, who came to America about 1635, and from James Otis.
Education
With the death of his father his schooling was stopped when he was fourteen years of age.
Career
He clerked in stores in nearby Watertown and Lockport until he was twenty and then he emigrated to St. Louis, Mo. Here in 1844 he induced Calvin Case, a prominent businessman, to finance an omnibus, said to be the first conveyance of its kind west of the Mississippi. The youthful driver made most of his first trips alone, but gradually the growing community approved the new mode of transportation and additional vehicles were required. He sold his interest in the omnibus line at a good profit and then managed a lead factory and a sawmill for a time. He returned to street transportation and founded the Missouri Railway Company, in 1859. He headed this enterprise until his retirement at the age of sixty, and also promoted a narrow-gauge railway to Florissant, Mo. He served as an official of two banks, and as a director of the Ohio and Mississippi Railroad. He was also president of the Laclede Gas Light Company in St. Louis. With his business life Wells coupled an active political career. He was elected to the St. Louis legislative body in 1848 for a one-year term, and returned in 1855 to serve fifteen years as alderman or councilman. During this time he was instrumental in the enactment of ordinances providing for notable improvements in the police, fire protection and water systems. He resigned in 1869 to take a seat as a Democrat in the Forty-first Congress. After holding office four terms, he was defeated in 1876. Two years later he was reëlected, only to retire voluntarily in 1881 because of ill health. His aptitude for committee work, his devotion to the interests of his section, and his friendship with President Grant, whom he had known in St. Louis, combined to make him a respected member despite the minority status of his party. Wells had two outstanding legislative concerns--the improvement of the Mississippi River and the development of the Southwest. He was ahead of his time in regard to both and a number of his bills died in committee. His unreported bill of 1871, dealing with the opening of Oklahoma, antedated that historic event by more than seventeen years. He also worked for appropriations for various Indian Territory tribes in fulfillment of treaty obligations, and sponsored bills for marine hospitals and other government buildings. Following a long illness he died of locomotor ataxia in his seventieth year at his suburban estate, "Wellston, " and was buried in Bellefontaine Cemetery.
Achievements
Connections
Wells was married twice: in 1850 to Isabella Bowman Henry of Jacksonville, Ill. , who died in 1877; in 1879 to Mrs. Daniel W. Bell (Eleanor P. Warfield), of Lexington, Ky. By the former he had five children, two of whom matured, the surviving son being Rolla Wells.