This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Classification: Obituary Message Board URL: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/rw/SCWBAIB/4481 Message Board Post: Colorado Springs Gazette Wednesday, 4 January 1939 page 10 William H. Wells Dies at age of 87 Pioneer Sheep Grower was Leader in Industry; to Hold Funeral Today Funeral services for William H. Wells, pioneer resident of the Pikes Peak Region who died Tuesday morning at his home, 1624 N. Tejon St., will be held at 2 o'clock this afternoon from the Law drawing room. Rev. Howard Hansen and Rev. Harry S. Kennedy will conduct this services. Burial will be in Evergreen cemetery. Mr. Wells, who was 87 years old, retired from active work several years ago, but retained a lively interest in 24,000 acres of ranch land which he owned in Elbert county and which has been managed for the last eight years by his son-in-law, T. Gerowe Simmons. Surviving are his daughter, Mrs. Simmons; a sister, Mrs. B.K. Read, 320 W. Colorado Ave., and two grandchildren. His wife died in Colorado Springs six years ago. Pallbearers at the funeral this afternoon will be Charles Hopkins, Ted Thomas, Robert S. Caldwell, Robert Spurgeon, Jack Miller, J. Stubbs, Harold Hawks and D. Clyde Waugh. Mr. Well' grandfather and family settled in Connecticut after arriving in this country from England, his grandfather later moving to Wolcott, N.Y. Mr. Wells' father, Samuel Styles Wells, was six years old when the family went to Wolcott. Mr. Wells came to Colorado from Wolcott in 1880. He was regarded as one of the outstanding sheep ranchers of the state. When a young man he came to region from New York. He was engaged for some time in the mercantile business with Russell Gates, the stores and trading posts of the pair becoming prominent in various communities of the west. Later he discontinued merchadising and centered his activities on ranch development. His son-in-law who took over the ranch management when Mr. Wells moved to Colorado Springs, eight years ago, is graduate of the Colorado Springs high school. He attended Colorado college for two years and graduated at Brown university. The Wells ranch grew from a few sections to a total today of more than 28 sections, or 17,920 acres to be exact. Last year, in addition to that owned outright, 6,800 acres of grazing land were under lease to Mr. Simmons in the Bijou basin country. The ranch, located in eastern Elbert county, seven miles northeast of Matheson, is crossed diagonally by the Rock Island Railroad and Big Sandy Creek. Shipments of lambs and wool to the Denver and Boston markets, respectively, are made on both the Rock Island and the Union Pacific lines.