Welcome to the family, Abigail. I apologize for misidentifying you as Abigail Russell Davis and squirreling down rabbit hole after rabbit hole looking for you. I’m sure Abigail R. Davis was a perfectly nice woman but she’s not my relative. Lesson learned yet again about taking time to follow each lead to its natural end. #52ancestors or bust!
I have already written about my great, great grandfather Moses K. Wells. This post is about his mother and father: Abigail Warner Wells and Samuel Wells. However, this is also a work in progress as I know very little about the Wells family and even less about the Warner line.
Abigail Warner appears to have been born in 1824, possibly in Atlantic County, New Jersey. She married Samuel Wells before 1853. I have no idea how they met, as Samuel is living with his parents Samuel and Mercy Wells in the 1850 census in Southampton, Burlington County. However, when the 1855 NJ state census is taken five years later, Samuel and Abigail have settled in Weymouth Township in Atlantic County and have two small boys, Michael and Moses, living with them. The complete list of their children is:
- Michael M. Wells (1851-1937)
- Moses K. Wells (1854-1925)
- John H. Wells (1857-1920)
- Samuel J. Wells (1859-1936)
- Sarah Ann Wells (1861-1934)
- Mary E. Wells (1863-1943)
- Margaret A. Wells (1865-)
The family seem to have moved back to Burlington County by 1860 however, and stay there. Although Abigail appears to have died in Cumberland County on 6 October 1884, she is possibly buried in Methodist Cemetery in Pemberton. Samuel Wells is living with son Michael and his wife Jennie Leeds Wells in 1900. Samuel died shortly after that census on 9 October 1900 and is possibly buried in the Methodist Cemetery in Pemberton.
This was one of those essays I almost did not write. I know so little about these two and it would have been so easy to just put it off until later. However, on the theory that people don’t know I am looking if I don’t tell them, I am putting this out there in the hopes that someone can help fill in the blanks.
Telling My Story 