Mary Leslie (Dana) Wells (1911 - 1992)

Born 12 Oct 1911 in Kirkwood, St. Louis, Missouri, United States

Ancestors

Wife of Channing McGregory Wells Jr — married 19 Sep 1932 in Wianno, Barnstable, Barnstable, Massachusetts, United States

Died 24 Jan 1992 at age 80 in Concord, Middlesex County, Massachusetts, USA

Biography

Mary Leslie Dana was born in 1911, granddaughter of a prominent Missouri senator. She was married at age 21 and widowed at age 38. After the death of her husband Channing McGregory Wells Wells-27638, who was a nephew of the founders of Old Sturbridge Village, Mrs. Wells became active in the preservation of historic houses.

From the mid 1950s to the mid 1970s Mrs Wells restored and lived in an early New England saltbox home that had been built in Andover Connecticut ca 1750. It was removed from its original site in Andover to Union Connecticut, where she lived in it until 1976. At that time she donated the house to The Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn Michigan. A donation valued at over one million dollars the house was carefully dismantled and reconstructed under close supervision in Greenfield Village, the museum's living history village. ^[1]

Mrs Wells survived her husband by 43 years. Her death announcement in the Boston Globe suggested that memorial gifts be made to Old Sturbridge village. ^[2]

The Mary Dana Wells Charitable Trust was established in 1993 to support Antiquarian & Landmarks Society, Hartford, Connecticut, Harvard University, Cambridge, Trustees of Boston University, MA Eye and Ear Hospital, and the Children's Medical Center, Boston, Massachusetts.^[3] The Antiquarian and Landmarks Society (now CT Landmarks) owns 8 historic CT houses and The Mary Wells Charitable Trust provides major support to their Palmer-Warner House.

Death

POMFRET - 25 Jan 1992 Mary (Dana) Wells, 80, of Carleton-Willard Village, Bedford, formerly of Pomfret and Union, Conn., died yesterday in Emerson Hospital, Concord, after a short illness.

Her husband, Channing M. Wells Jr., died some years ago. She leaves two sons, Channing M. Wells III of Osterville and Leslie D. Wells of Brownsburg, Va.; and five grandchildren. She was born in Kirkwood, Mo., daughter of Leslie D. and Judith (Brown) Dana, and lived many years in Pomfret and Union, Conn., before moving to Bedford about six years ago.

Mrs. Wells graduated from Stuart Hall School in Virginia and Bennett College in Greensboro, N.C. She was a member of National Society of Colonial Dames of America.

Sources

1. ↑ https://www.thehenryford.org/visit/greenfield-village/.
2. ↑ Boston Globe, Boston, Massachusetts, 07 Feb 1992, Fri  •  Page 19
3. ↑ https://fconline.foundationcenter.org/fdo-grantmaker-profile/?key=WELL063

• https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/55068466/mary-leslie-wells
• https://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,744408,00.html
• https://www.thehenryford.org/visit/greenfield-village/
• United States of America, Bureau of the Census; Washington, D.C.; Seventeenth Census of the United States, 1950; Record Group: Records of the Bureau of the Census, 1790-2007; Record Group Number: 29; Residence Date: 1950; Home in 1950: Union, Tolland, Connecticut; Roll: 2443; Sheet Number: 10; Enumeration District: 7-27

Research Notes

In 1940 census, just after she was widowed at age 38, Mary Leslie Dana Wells (Mrs. Channing McGregory Wells Jr) lived on Mashapaug Lake in Union CT.