Lemuel H. Wells
Encyclopedia
Lemuel Henry Wells was the first Bishop
of the Episcopal Diocese of Spokane
.
, Wells lived a sheltered childhood, and as a boy experienced a desire to become a missionary
. He entered Trinity College
in 1860. Wells was visiting his father in Wisconsin
in 1862 when the American Civil War
broke out, and he was recruited as a member of the 32nd Wisconsin Infantry Regiment. He fought in the Battle of Vicksburg
in 1863, and in 1864 was mustered out and returned to Trinity College, from which he was graduated in 1867.
He prepared for ministry at Berkeley Divinity School
(now part of Yale Divinity School
) and was ordained a Deacon
in 1869. A week after his graduation from Berkeley, Wells married Elizabeth Folger, ward of Charles J. Folger
, Secretary of the Treasury. The marriage was short-lived, however, as Elizabeth died following a year spent in Europe. Wells, a newly ordained priest
, determined to act on his earlier desire to become a missionary and Bishop Benjamin Wistar Morris of the then-frontier states of Oregon and Washington asked Wells to become rector of a struggling mission in Walla Walla, Washington
.
, Wells founded the St. Paul’s Girl’s School as well as a Boy’s School that was never as successful. In 1880, Wells married the principal of St. Paul’s Girl’s School, Henrietta Garretson, whose father was a senator of Pennsylvania. He established thirty-one Episcopal Missions in Washington, Oregon, and Idaho - in many places, Wells' mission was the first church or religious establishment in the region. These missions included the first Episcopal congregations in:
In 1882, Wells moved to Connecticut
, but was called back to Western Washington in 1885, as rector of St. Luke’s Episcopal Church, Tacoma. Charles Wright, a Tacoma railroad tycoon, was responsible for the splendid new St. Luke's, and had plans to found a Girls' School. He showed his plans to Henrietta Wells, who made several suggestions and was recruited as the first principal of Annie Wright Seminary, a venerable and successful Tacoma school. During Wells' tenure at St. Luke's, the congregation grew to such an extent that many mission churches were founded; many of Tacoma's present-day Episcopal congregations can trace their roots to Wells' influence at St. Luke's.
in the western part of the state, and the Episcopal Diocese of Spokane
in the eastern part. It was Wells who determined on Spokane, WA as his See city, and he and his wife moved from Tacoma to Spokane after Wells was consecrated as the first Bishop of Spokane in New Haven, Connecticut
in 1892. One of the Wells’ first acts in Spokane was to found another girls’ school – Brunot Hall, which was conceived and organized on the train ride back from New Haven following Wells’ consecration. While in Spokane he also founded St. Luke’s Hospital, Spokane. Wells became something of an international celebrity while Bishop of Spokane, being invited to two Lambeth Conferences
in 1900 and 1910. While in England in 1900 he was seated next to Queen Victoria at a dinner, and amused her with stories of Ulysses S. Grant
(under whom Wells had served during the American Civil War
) and Abraham Lincoln
, whom he had met on several occasions. The Queen, thinking that the "Washington" in which Wells served was the Nation’s Capital, and that Wells was a kind of chaplain
to the President
, invited him to family supper, and was not pleased to learn that her guest was, in fact, a missionary bishop in the rural northwest.
Bishop Wells and his third wife, Jane Sheldon (Henrietta Garretson having died in 1903) moved to Tacoma in their retirement. Wells was petitioned by the Episcopal Diocese of Spokane
to record his memoirs upon his retirement in 1915, and in 1931 these were published as "A Pioneer Missionary." Wells died in 1936.
Bishop
A bishop is an ordained or consecrated member of the Christian clergy who is generally entrusted with a position of authority and oversight. Within the Catholic Church, Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox Churches, in the Assyrian Church of the East, in the Independent Catholic Churches, and in the...
of the Episcopal Diocese of Spokane
Episcopal Diocese of Spokane
The Episcopal Diocese of Spokane is a diocese of the Episcopal Church in eastern Washington and North Idaho, United States. Its office and cathedral seat are in Spokane, Washington. The current Bishop is the Right Reverend James Waggoner, Jr....
.
Early years
Born in Yonkers, New YorkYonkers, New York
Yonkers is the fourth most populous city in the state of New York , and the most populous city in Westchester County, with a population of 195,976...
, Wells lived a sheltered childhood, and as a boy experienced a desire to become a missionary
Missionary
A missionary is a member of a religious group sent into an area to do evangelism or ministries of service, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care and economic development. The word "mission" originates from 1598 when the Jesuits sent members abroad, derived from the Latin...
. He entered Trinity College
Trinity College (Connecticut)
Trinity College is a private, liberal arts college in Hartford, Connecticut. Founded in 1823, it is the second-oldest college in the state of Connecticut after Yale University. The college enrolls 2,300 students and has been coeducational since 1969. Trinity offers 38 majors and 26 minors, and has...
in 1860. Wells was visiting his father in Wisconsin
Wisconsin
Wisconsin is a U.S. state located in the north-central United States and is part of the Midwest. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake Michigan to the east, Michigan to the northeast, and Lake Superior to the north. Wisconsin's capital is...
in 1862 when the American Civil War
American Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
broke out, and he was recruited as a member of the 32nd Wisconsin Infantry Regiment. He fought in the Battle of Vicksburg
Battle of Vicksburg
The Siege of Vicksburg was the final major military action in the Vicksburg Campaign of the American Civil War. In a series of maneuvers, Union Maj. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant and his Army of the Tennessee crossed the Mississippi River and drove the Confederate army of Lt. Gen. John C...
in 1863, and in 1864 was mustered out and returned to Trinity College, from which he was graduated in 1867.
He prepared for ministry at Berkeley Divinity School
Berkeley Divinity School
Berkeley Divinity School, founded in 1854, is an official seminary of the Episcopal Church, based in New Haven, Connecticut. The seminary was originally founded as a middle-way between the Anglo-Catholic leaning General Theological Seminary in New York, and the Evangelical-leaning Virginia...
(now part of Yale Divinity School
Yale Divinity School
Yale Divinity School is a professional school at Yale University, in New Haven, Connecticut, U.S. preparing students for ordained or lay ministry, or for the academy...
) and was ordained a Deacon
Deacon
Deacon is a ministry in the Christian Church that is generally associated with service of some kind, but which varies among theological and denominational traditions...
in 1869. A week after his graduation from Berkeley, Wells married Elizabeth Folger, ward of Charles J. Folger
Charles J. Folger
Charles James Folger was an American lawyer and politician. He was U.S. Secretary of the Treasury from 1881 until his death.-Early life:...
, Secretary of the Treasury. The marriage was short-lived, however, as Elizabeth died following a year spent in Europe. Wells, a newly ordained priest
Priest
A priest is a person authorized to perform the sacred rites of a religion, especially as a mediatory agent between humans and deities. They also have the authority or power to administer religious rites; in particular, rites of sacrifice to, and propitiation of, a deity or deities...
, determined to act on his earlier desire to become a missionary and Bishop Benjamin Wistar Morris of the then-frontier states of Oregon and Washington asked Wells to become rector of a struggling mission in Walla Walla, Washington
Walla Walla, Washington
Walla Walla is the largest city in and the county seat of Walla Walla County, Washington, United States. The population was 31,731 at the 2010 census...
.
Eastern Washington: 1871-1892
In 1872, during his second year as rector in Walla WallaWalla Walla, Washington
Walla Walla is the largest city in and the county seat of Walla Walla County, Washington, United States. The population was 31,731 at the 2010 census...
, Wells founded the St. Paul’s Girl’s School as well as a Boy’s School that was never as successful. In 1880, Wells married the principal of St. Paul’s Girl’s School, Henrietta Garretson, whose father was a senator of Pennsylvania. He established thirty-one Episcopal Missions in Washington, Oregon, and Idaho - in many places, Wells' mission was the first church or religious establishment in the region. These missions included the first Episcopal congregations in:
- Waitsburg, WashingtonWaitsburg, WashingtonWaitsburg is a city in Walla Walla County, Washington, United States. The population was 1,217 at the 2010 census. Waitsburg has a unique city classification in the State of Washington. It is the only city which still operates under its territorial charter....
- Dayton, WashingtonDayton, WashingtonDayton is a city in and the county seat of Columbia County, Washington, United States. The population was 2,526 at the 2010 census.-History:...
- Colfax, WashingtonColfax, WashingtonColfax is the county seat of Whitman County, Washington, United States.The population was 2,805 at the 2010 census.It is situated amidst wheat-covered hills in a valley at the confluence of the north and south forks of the Palouse River. U.S...
- Pomeroy, WashingtonPomeroy, WashingtonPomeroy is a city in Garfield County, Washington, United States. The population was 1,425 at the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Garfield County.-Geography: Pomeroy is located at ....
- Weston, OregonWeston, OregonWeston is a city in Umatilla County, Oregon, United States. It was originally a post office called Mitchell's Station, established in February 1867. In September 1869, T.T. Lieuallen renamed the post office after his hometown, Weston, Missouri. The population was 717 at the 2000 census...
- Pendleton, OregonPendleton, OregonPendleton is a city in Umatilla County, Oregon, United States. Pendleton was named in 1868 by the county commissioners for George H. Pendleton, Democratic candidate for Vice-President in the 1864 presidential campaign. The population was 16,612 at the 2010 census...
- Ritzville, WashingtonRitzville, WashingtonRitzville is a city in Adams County, Washington, United States. The population was 1,673 at the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Adams County.-History:...
- La Grande, OregonLa Grande, Oregon-Demographics:As of the census of 2000, there were 12,327 people, 5,124 households, and 2,982 families residing in the city. The population density was 2,833.5 people per square mile . There were 5,483 housing units at an average density of 1,260.3 per square mile...
- Cove, OregonCove, OregonCove is a city in Union County, Oregon, United States. The population was 594 at the 2000 census.-History:Cove was platted in the 1870s along Ruckles Road, only the second road over the Blue Mountains.-Geography:...
- Baker City, OregonBaker City, OregonBaker City is a city in and the county seat of Baker County, Oregon, United States. It was named after Edward D. Baker. The population was 9,828 at the 2010 census.-History:...
- Pullman, WashingtonPullman, WashingtonPullman is the largest city in Whitman County, Washington, United States. The population was 24,675 at the 2000 census and 29,799 according to the 2010 census...
- North Yakima, WashingtonYakima, WashingtonYakima is an American city southeast of Mount Rainier National Park and the county seat of Yakima County, Washington, United States, and the eighth largest city by population in the state itself. As of the 2010 census, the city had a total population of 91,196 and a metropolitan population of...
- Camas Prairie, Washington
- Moscow, IdahoMoscow, IdahoMoscow is a city in northern Idaho, situated along the Washington/Idaho border. It is the most populous city and county seat of Latah County and the home of the University of Idaho, the land grant institution and primary research university for the state...
- Palouse, WashingtonPalouse, WashingtonPalouse is a city in Whitman County, Washington, United States. The population was 998 at the 2010 census. Palouse is named for the region of farmland in which it is situated, and was incorporated in 1888.-History:...
- Northport, WashingtonNorthport, WashingtonNorthport is a town in Stevens County, Washington, United States. The population was 295 at the 2010 census.-History:Northport was given its name since it was once the northernmost town on the Spokane Falls and Northern Railway...
- Kennewick, WashingtonKennewick, WashingtonKennewick is a city in Benton County in the southeastern part of the U.S. state of Washington, near the Hanford nuclear site. It is the most populous of the three cities collectively referred to as the Tri-Cities...
- Zillah, WashingtonZillah, WashingtonZillah is a city in Yakima County, Washington, United States with a population of 2,964 at the 2010 census.-History:Zillah was founded in 1891 following the completion of the Sunnyside Canal project, an irrigation scheme delivering water from the Yakima River to the arid lower Yakima Valley. Walter...
- Lewiston, IdahoLewiston, IdahoLewiston is a city in and also the county seat of Nez Perce County in the Pacific Northwest state of Idaho. It is the second-largest city in the northern Idaho region, behind Coeur d'Alene and ninth-largest in the state. Lewiston is the principal city of the Lewiston, ID - Clarkston, WA...
- Ellensburg, WashingtonEllensburg, WashingtonEllensburg is a city in, and the county seat of, Kittitas County, Washington, United States. The population was 18,174 at the 2010 census. The population was 18,250 at 2011 Estimate from Office of Financial Management. Ellensburg is located just east of the Cascade Range on I-90 and is known as the...
- Sunnyside, WashingtonSunnyside, WashingtonSunnyside is a city in Yakima County, Washington, United States. As of the 2010 Census the population was 15,858.-History:On September 16, 1902, residents voted 42 to one to incorporate as the town of Sunnyside. By state law a town needed to have 300 citizens in order to legally incorporate...
- Roslyn, WashingtonRoslyn, WashingtonRoslyn is a city in Kittitas County, Washington, United States. The population was 893 at the 2010 census.-Geography:Roslyn is located at...
In 1882, Wells moved to Connecticut
Connecticut
Connecticut is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, and the state of New York to the west and the south .Connecticut is named for the Connecticut River, the major U.S. river that approximately...
, but was called back to Western Washington in 1885, as rector of St. Luke’s Episcopal Church, Tacoma. Charles Wright, a Tacoma railroad tycoon, was responsible for the splendid new St. Luke's, and had plans to found a Girls' School. He showed his plans to Henrietta Wells, who made several suggestions and was recruited as the first principal of Annie Wright Seminary, a venerable and successful Tacoma school. During Wells' tenure at St. Luke's, the congregation grew to such an extent that many mission churches were founded; many of Tacoma's present-day Episcopal congregations can trace their roots to Wells' influence at St. Luke's.
Bishop of Spokane: 1892-1915
In 1892 the General Convention of the Episcopal Church divided the State of Washington into two Dioceses, the Episcopal Diocese of OlympiaEpiscopal Diocese of Olympia
The Episcopal Diocese of Olympia, also known as the Episcopal Church in Western Washington, is a diocese of the Episcopal Church in Washington state west of the Cascade Range. It is one of 17 dioceses and an area mission that make up Province 8. The diocese started as a missionary district in 1853...
in the western part of the state, and the Episcopal Diocese of Spokane
Episcopal Diocese of Spokane
The Episcopal Diocese of Spokane is a diocese of the Episcopal Church in eastern Washington and North Idaho, United States. Its office and cathedral seat are in Spokane, Washington. The current Bishop is the Right Reverend James Waggoner, Jr....
in the eastern part. It was Wells who determined on Spokane, WA as his See city, and he and his wife moved from Tacoma to Spokane after Wells was consecrated as the first Bishop of Spokane in New Haven, Connecticut
New Haven, Connecticut
New Haven is the second-largest city in Connecticut and the sixth-largest in New England. According to the 2010 Census, New Haven's population increased by 5.0% between 2000 and 2010, a rate higher than that of the State of Connecticut, and higher than that of the state's five largest cities, and...
in 1892. One of the Wells’ first acts in Spokane was to found another girls’ school – Brunot Hall, which was conceived and organized on the train ride back from New Haven following Wells’ consecration. While in Spokane he also founded St. Luke’s Hospital, Spokane. Wells became something of an international celebrity while Bishop of Spokane, being invited to two Lambeth Conferences
Lambeth Conferences
The Lambeth Conferences are decennial assemblies of bishops of the Anglican Communion convened by the Archbishop of Canterbury. The first such conference took place in 1867....
in 1900 and 1910. While in England in 1900 he was seated next to Queen Victoria at a dinner, and amused her with stories of Ulysses S. Grant
Ulysses S. Grant
Ulysses S. Grant was the 18th President of the United States as well as military commander during the Civil War and post-war Reconstruction periods. Under Grant's command, the Union Army defeated the Confederate military and ended the Confederate States of America...
(under whom Wells had served during the American Civil War
American Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
) and Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln was the 16th President of the United States, serving from March 1861 until his assassination in April 1865. He successfully led his country through a great constitutional, military and moral crisis – the American Civil War – preserving the Union, while ending slavery, and...
, whom he had met on several occasions. The Queen, thinking that the "Washington" in which Wells served was the Nation’s Capital, and that Wells was a kind of chaplain
Chaplain
Traditionally, a chaplain is a minister in a specialized setting such as a priest, pastor, rabbi, or imam or lay representative of a religion attached to a secular institution such as a hospital, prison, military unit, police department, university, or private chapel...
to the President
President
A president is a leader of an organization, company, trade union, university, or country.Etymologically, a president is one who presides, who sits in leadership...
, invited him to family supper, and was not pleased to learn that her guest was, in fact, a missionary bishop in the rural northwest.
Retirement
In 1915, Wells retired as Bishop of Spokane, recommending that a younger man would be much more suited to the rigors of horseback and stagecoach travel that was so much a part of his position. His report read as follows:"When I first came to Eastern Washington as a missionary in 1871 I found only six communicants of the Church and nothing more in this whole district; no clergymen, no institutions. Now we have three thousand communicants, twenty clergymen, with twenty-two lay readers, ministering to sixty churches and missions. We have in successful operation – three boarding and day schools with twenty teachers and two hundred pupils, a hospital with fifty beds; a Church home for children with room for twenty-five orphans […] I doubt if any one of our mission fields can show a more remarkable growth toward self-support."
Bishop Wells and his third wife, Jane Sheldon (Henrietta Garretson having died in 1903) moved to Tacoma in their retirement. Wells was petitioned by the Episcopal Diocese of Spokane
Episcopal Diocese of Spokane
The Episcopal Diocese of Spokane is a diocese of the Episcopal Church in eastern Washington and North Idaho, United States. Its office and cathedral seat are in Spokane, Washington. The current Bishop is the Right Reverend James Waggoner, Jr....
to record his memoirs upon his retirement in 1915, and in 1931 these were published as "A Pioneer Missionary." Wells died in 1936.
See also
- List of Bishop Succession in the Episcopal ChurchSuccession of Bishops of the Episcopal Church in the United StatesThis list consists of the bishops in the Episcopal Church in the United States of America, an independent province of the Anglican Communion. This shows the historic succession of the episcopate within this denomination.-Key to chart:...
Further reading
- Right Reverend Lemuel H Wells, A Pioneer Missionary (Seattle, 1931)
- "A Pioneer Missionary" online at Project Canterbury.