Submitted by Connie Karle Thanks Connie!

Thomas Jefferson Wells was born in 1848, 15 miles west of Fayetteville, Washington County, Arkansas to Daniel Wells and Johannah Roberts. His father was an apple grower. He and his father took wagon loads of apples to Texas each Fall to sell. In 1863, when Thomas was 15 yrs. of age, upon his return to Arkansas from Texas, saddled a horse and headed back to Texas. Upon his arrival, he worked on a ranch breaking horses.

He joined the Civil War and fought for the South the last 2 years of that war. He joined the Texas Volunteers and was a guard on the Red River at a salary of $9.00 per month. Due to the South losing the war, the salary was never paid.

He met Lucinda Allison and they were married in Bell County, Texas in February of 1865. After their marriage he was a teamster driving mail from Henryetta to Waxahache, Texas. Around 1875 he became a Texas Ranger.

He died January 12, 1895 from pneumonia on the trail between Texas and Indian Territory. A passerby found his body and buried him 'in a cemetery where a man cultivated cotton between the graves. There were oak saplings at the head of the grave and it was marked only by a rock. The cemetery was near Burnieville, Oklahoma, 21 miles south of Ardmore, Chickasaw Territory, 10 miles from the Red River.' The passerby returned Thomas's boots to the family.