Aaron Wells Family Association

REMINDER!

Wells Family Reunion

Sunday, July 20, 2003

11:00 a.m.?:00 p.m.

North Central 4-H Center

Carlisle, Kentucky

Genealogist/Founder????? President??????????????? ????????Secretary/Treasurer?????? Newsletter Editor

Lucy Thompson ?????????Jon Hagee????????????? ????????Betty Jo Wells???????????Patricia Roane Straube

1917-1991??????????????? 3021 Stanford Dr. ????????????????R. R. 2, Box 215?????????? 131 Robinhood Dr.

????????????????????????Lexington, KY?40517????? ????????Mt. Olivet, KY?41064?????San Francisco., CA?94127

????????????????????????(829) 271-2918??????????? ????????(606) 724-5696??????????? (415) 334-6300

????????????????????????Jon Hagee (email)???????????????????????? ????????????????straube@earthlink.net

????????????????????????http://frontierfolk.org/wells.htm

Message from the President

HISTORY COMES ALIVE

Dear Cousins,

I am continuing to research the 18th century frontier lifestyle. I have been appointed the Kentucky representative for the Coalition of Historical Trekkers. The CoHT's goal is to explore history in a unique way - to take conclusions drawn from document research a step further. That is to put the gear and clothing of our frontier ancestors to practical use. In the past year, I have taken several small group trips into the woods as well as participated in a project called Martin's Station.

Martin's Station was a summer-long project to rebuild the fort in a historical manner. Once we crossed the fence, we had to live, eat, sleep and work using only 1770's equipment, gear and clothing. We slept in the cabins or on the ground. We ate food prepared over the open fire. We hauled logs into the fort area with teams of horses. We posted guards and shared early morning scouts to thwart Indian attack which came frequently. We used axes and other tools to debark and notch the logs into the appropriate shape for cabins and stockade walls for the fort. We built the fort by hand and you can certainly see that if you visit. In celebration, we held one of the most realistic reenactments of a frontier battle in October and again this spring. Martin's Station is about halfway between Cumberland Gap and the Zachariah Wells homestead in Big Stone Gap, Virginia. I have started wondering if indeed some of our ancestors were at this important outpost of the Virginia frontier.

Learn more about this ground-breaking project at:
http://martinsstation.com/

The Kentucky chapter of the Coalition of Historical Trekkers for Kentucky has a web page at: http://www.coht.org/ky/

One book I am reading is the Reverend James B. Finley's Pioneer Life in the West. This is where we get one of the first-hand accounts of a cousin to many of the Wells, Simon Kenton. As a child, James Finley first met Kenton while he was living in frontier Washington, Kentucky (where we hold the Simon Kenton Frontier Festival in the fall). He recalls: It was in this place that I saw for the first time that great adventurer, Simon Kenton. He was truly the master-spirit of the times in that region of country. He was looked up to by all as the great defender of the inhabitants, always on the qui vive, and ready to fly at a moment's warning to the place of danger, for the protection of the scattered families in the wilderness. Providence seems to have raised up this man for a special purpose; and his eventful life, and the many wonderful and almost miraculous deliverances, in which he was preserved amidst the greatest perils and dangers, are confirmatory of the fact, that he was a child of Providence.

The importance of books like this is the primary documentation from contemporaries of Simon Kenton and his peers (like Aaron Wells!). Finley himself was a frontier hunter and in addition to stories heard directly from other early woodsmen, he relates some very interesting tales from his own experience.

Some of you may want to attend the Simon Kenton Frontier Festival—September 20-21, 2003, Old Washington, Kentucky. The SKFF features many "living historians" to demonstrate the 18th century way of life.
http://frontierfolk.org/festival.htm
Some of you may know of the town Ruddles Mill. What you may not know is the frontier history of Isaac Ruddle and his family. Halfway between Cynthiana and Paris was a fort called Ruddles Station. It was captured, along with 400 Kentuckians, during the Revolutionary War.
Now, the station or fort is long gone, but there is a?reunion of descendants on June 28, 2003. Please contact me or see this web page for further details:
http://ramsha1780.org

Our own Wells reunion is coming up in July! I'm looking forward to seeing everyone soon!

????????????????????????????????????Your cousin,
????????????????????????????????????????????????Jon Hagee

Treasurer’s Report

Dear Cousins,

? Once again it is time to think of attending our annual reunion. We certainly hope that many of you have this thought uppermost in your mind. We would enjoy having a large, enthusiastic crowd this year.

? To those of you who find it impossible to attend and who still enjoy the newsletter, please send in your donations, if you have not done so. Some have suggested that we have yearly membership dues ?please feel free to express your thoughts concerning this.

? I hope many of you are finishing your items for the auction. We have had many treasures brought for this project in previous years. We hope to continue this activity.

? At this time our treasury balance is $776.19. We will need to pay for this newsletter and the $125.00 rent for the reunion facilities

????????????????????????????????????????????????

Respectfully submitted,

????????????????????????????????????????????????Betty Jo Wells

????????????????????????????????????????????????Secretary/Treasurer

Letter from the Editor

Thanks to all of you who have contributed items and information for this newsletter: Brenda Derr, Vernon Dotson, Darleen Bow Etter, Harold Graves, Connie Hazletine, Jessica Lewis and Nicky Wells.

Please remember to send your news, updates, pictures, change of address and other items of family or historical interest to me at:

Newsletter Editor

131 Robinhood Drive

San Francisco, CA?94127-1626

Email: straube@earthlink.net.

You can visit our updated four-generation database at RootsWeb:

http://worldconnect.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?db=wellswiggins

And the Aaron and Ruth (Wiggins) Wells Family Association?web page:

http://frontierfolk.org/wells.htm

????????????????????????????????????????????????Sincerely,

?/span>??????????????????????????????????????????????? Patricia Roane Straube

????????????????????????????????????????????????Newsletter Editor

NEWFOUND KINSMEN OF AARON WELLS

JOSEPH WELLS

Another DNA match has occurred with a descendant of Joseph Wells (1768-1830) of Brownsville, Fayette County, Pennsylvania who married Sarah Farquhar (1767-1837). Their son William Wells (1791-1856) married Martha Laughead (1790-1863) and moved first, to Fallsbury Township, Licking County, Ohio, and then, to Zanesville, Muskingum County, Ohio. The oral tradition is that Joseph’s parents?names were Thomas and Anne. Thomas was said to have born in 1726 in England, living later in Maryland and York County, Pennsylvania before finally settling in the Fayette and Washington County, Pennsylvania area. He was also said to have served as a Captain in the Revolutionary War from Fayette County. Joseph and Sarah (Farquhar) Wells were also said to have children named Thomas and Anne but no other children or descendents, other than from William are known at this time.

William Wells was a chair maker and wheelwright. At least three of his sons went into the woodworking trades. Children of William Wells and Martha Laughead were: Mary Ann (1813- ); James L.?(1815-1888) m. Martha Mason; Sarah Jane (1817- ) m. Mr. Thompson; Joseph Jr. (1819-1890 ) m. Sophia Boyd; Dennis B.?(1821- ), Wesley (1822- ), Elizabeth (1825- ) m. William Harrison Legg; William (1826-1894) m. Rachel McFarland; Martha?(1830- ); Christiana (1832- ) m. Simon Anderson; and Matilda (1835- ).

From Thurston’s 1859 Directory of the Monongahela Valley, James L. Wells was listed as a ship’s carpenter living in Greenfield, Washington County, Pennsylvania (his occupation as given in J. H. Beers and Co.’s Commemorative Biographical Record of Washington County, Pennsylvania, 1893). Also living there was Augustine Wells, stonecutter and in the nearby town of California were Thomas F. Wells, boat builder, and John R. Wells, ship carpenter. A few miles away on the other bank of the Monongahela was Joseph Wells, pattern maker, in Brownsville, Fayette County, Pennsylvania, probably James?brother of that name. Their brother, William Jr., was also called a carpenter and pattern maker in Zanesville, Muskingum County, Ohio.

Lineage Links

Descendants of William W. Wells

?/span>and Matilda Collins

The January 2002?issue of the newsletter contained an update of the family of William W. Wells and Matilda Collin's daughter, Ruth Wells, who married Samuel M. Dotson. This newsletter continues the story of one of Ruth's grandsons, Benjamin Marshall Dotson, son of John W. Dotson and Mary Elizabeth Henderson. Unfortunately, the story is one of tragedy. Leonard was the only one of Ben’s children to survive infancy.

The Lexington Herald, January 13, 1929

Bullet Wound Proves Fatal

A bullet wound from a .32 calibre automatic pistol that discharged while he was cleaning it Friday morning caused the death of Leonard Dotson, 21 year old son of Patrolman and Mrs. Ben Dotson, who died early yesterday morning at the St. Joseph's hospital, where an emergency operation performed several hours earlier in an attempt to save his live proved futile.

Dotson was employed as a clerk in the S. A. Glass store at 400 East Third street. He came here with his parents from Clark county, where he was born [September 8, 1907], and attended school at Athens and in Lexington. He was a member of the Macedonia Christian church. Funeral services will be held this afternoon at 2:30 o'clock at the residence, 741 West Pine street with the Rev. J. W. Porter, pastor of the Immanuel Baptist church, officiating. Pallbearers will be James Hiffner, Richard Bush, Wilbur Delkin, James Didlake, Herbert Farris and R. B. Miller. Burial will be in the family lot in the Lexington cemetery. Besides his parents, Dotson is survived by his grandparents, Mr. and Mrs. John Dotson of Fleming county; one great-grandmother Mrs. Elizabeth Henderson, of Fleming county, and several aunts and uncles.

The Lexington Herald, November 11, 1949

Ben Dotson's Rites Will be Held Saturday

Funeral services for Ben Dotson, 63, of 179 Walton avenue, a member of the Lexington Police Department, will be held at 2 o'clock Saturday afternoon at the First Baptist church. The Rev. George Ragland, pastor, will officiate.

Mr. Dotson, a patrolman on the Lexington force for the past 21 years, died yesterday morning of injuries received Wednesday afternoon in a collision of his car and a semi-trailer truck at a highway intersection at Camp Dick Robinson near Danville. He had been unconscious at the Ephraim McDowell Memorial hospital in Danville from the time of the accident until his death. His wife, seriously hurt in the same accident, was brought yesterday to Lexington to Good Samaritan hospital, where her condition last night was reported as fair. Garrard County Sheriff Herbert Doolin said last night no charges had been placed against the driver of the truck involved in the collision, and that he had returned to Harriman, Tenn.

A native of Bourbon county, Mr. Dotson was a son of John Dotson, Lexington, and the late Mrs. Mary Elizabeth Henderson Dotson. He had lived here most of his live, was a member of the First Baptist church and of Blue Grass Lodge No. 4, Fraternal Order of Police. Besides his wife and father he is survived by two brothers, Claude Dotson, Manchester, Ind., and Ernest Dotson, Florida. The body will remain at Kerr Brothers funeral home until time for services. Burial will be in the Lexington cemetery.

The Lexington Herald, January 12, 1966

Mrs. Cora Jane Dotson

Mrs. Cora Jane Dotson, 79, widow of Ben Dotson, 179 Walton Avenue, died yesterday at the St. Joseph Hospital after a long illness. A native of Madison County, she was a daughter of the late James and Eliza Jane Bryant Green. She was a member of the First Baptist Church. Survivors include a sister-in-law, Mrs. Lonnie Green, Lexington, and a brother-in-law, Claude Dotson, Wabash, Ind., and several nieces and nephews. Services will be conducted at 10 a.m. Friday at the Kerr Brothers Funeral Home by the Rev. David Friedly. Burial will be in the Lexington Cemetery. Friends may call at the funeral home after 6 p.m. today.