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Museum Archives Exhibits Education History Links Site Index | |||||||||
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Colonial Settlers : Allen Casey & Sarah Wells | |||||||||
The Land | Born in Napanee, Ontario, A.C.Wells (1837-1922) came west in 1862 to the gold fields in the Cariboo. He was not successful and left the gold fields broke. In 1863, he went to Yale and turned to his trade as a harness maker. With employment secured he sent for his wife, Sarah M. Wells (nee Hodge) (1835-1921) who still lived in Ontario. The couple had married in 1859. Sarah Wells
traveled to her new home with her sister-in-law, Jane Evans and Mrs. Susan Forsyth. They
traveled to New York City and then by boat to Panama, crossing the isthmus by narrow gauge railway. A boat trip up the coast took them to Victoria where her husband, A.C. Wells, met them.
In 1865, the couple moved to Chilliwack from Yale where Wells managed the property of his brother-in-law Charles Evans who continued to live in Yale. He purchased his own land, 400 acres, in 1866 and moved into a simple frame house. Acreage was added to the property over the ensuing years so that Wells became one of the largest landholders in the Sardis area. Wells prospered in his farming endeavors. In 1885, he built the first creamery in the area, that later became a co-operative, the first in British Columbia. Wells' purebred Ayrshire cattle were, in 1906, recognized as the best in the Province. As early as 1907, Wells exported stock to Japan and Korea. He was trustee and treasurer of the first church in the community, the Atchelitz Methodist Church that was built in 1869. He was Chilliwack's first Justice of the Peace, Reeve of the Municipality of Chilliwack for various terms and an active member of the Chilliwack Agricultural Society. Sarah and Allan Casey Wells had two children, Lillian and Edwin. Edwin took over the farm after his father's retirement. In turn, Edwin's son Oliver continued the family tradition until the early 1970s when the farm was sold and subdivided. |
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P87- Formal portrait of Allen Casey Wells
P88- Formal portrait of Mrs. Sarah Manetta Wells P89- The Wells Family |
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Museum Archives Exhibits Education History Links Site Index