Charles Wells, born 06 Apr 1745 son of Benjamin Wells and Temperance Butler, married 27 Dec 1764 Michal Owings who died on 17 May 1783, two months after the birth of her 10th child. He then married 24 Jul 1784 Elizabeth Prather, daughter of Charles Prather and Ruth Tannehill. They had 12 children making a total of 22 for Charles. The 20th was named "Twenty Wells" b: 23 Nov 1798 and was described in her father's will. (also mentioned below) as "a helpless child". His 3rd child, Temperance Wells b: 01 Sep 1769 m: 1) Nathaniel Wells (b: 01 Apr 1762) and thus formed one of the Big Wells-Little Wells family bonds. Nathaniel Wells was a son of Alexander Wells and Leah Owings.
Charles Wells also had his ties with a town called Sistersville. The exact year that Charles Wells, the first settler of prominence, arrived in the area which is now called Sistersville, is not known. In 1800, he had surveyed a tract of 200 acres on the Ohio River. Charles Wells was a man of prominence, who was involved with the Virginia State Legislature between 1789 and 1810. Sometime around 1802, Wells left Wellsburg in a flatboat and floated down the Ohio River to settle one mile below where Sistersville now exists. In his cargo was the machinery for a horse mill which he established. He built a log cabin just south of where the Sistersville Golf Course is today.
On May 9, 1813, he acquired four hundred acres of land on which Sistersville and close residential area is located. Soon after the first court of Tyler county was held in his home, Charles Wells died in 1815. His grave has this inscription: "Charles Wells, born April 6, 1745; died April 6, 1815: aged 70 yrs. and ten days; a native of Baltimore County Maryland; immigrated to Ohio County, Virginia, 1776. He was a practical farmer and the father of twenty-two children, two wives, ten by the first and twelve by the second."
His will. provided for each living member of his family. In 1815, the Wells sisters, (Sarah and Delilah Wells Grier laid out the town on the land which they had inherited. Sistersville hence got its name from the seventeenth and eighteenth children of Charles Wells. The town was incorporated Feb. 2, 1839, under the name Sistersville and in 1845, the municipal government was established.
Charles died April 16,1815 in Balore County, MD.
To see the Last Will and Testament of Charles Wells click here.
To see the Last Will and testament of Elizabeth Prather Wells click here.
