Cate Gilbert Wells

As printed in 1915

Mrs. Cate Gilbert Wells is one of Iowa's well known women whose interests and activities are of great breadth as indicated in the number and variety of organizations with which she is connected, organizations which stand for culture along art and literary lines. for patriotic achievement and for civic betterment. She is one of Burlington's native daughters and acquired her primary education in the Gordon school and the Chapman-Benedict School for young woniL-n in New York city. She afterward spent nearly two years abroad, gaining that wide knowledge, experience and culture which only travel can bring. She visited various points on the European continent and in the Orient, and while traveling on the Nile she met in the temple of Karnak, Charles W. Wells, to whom she was married on the jth of June, 1892. Both she and her husband could trace their lineage back to the same source. Her maternal grandmother, Mrs. Stevens Merrill, was in her maidenhood Mehetabel Worthley Wells, through whom the ancestral line of Mrs. Cate Gilbert Wells connects with that of her husband in the father of Thomas Wells, of England, who came to America in 1635, a deacon and doctor and member of The Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company of Boston. Samuel Wells, of Plymouth, New Hampshire, served in the Revolutionarv war, participating in the battle of White Plains and other engagements. The Wells family has a prominent ecclesiastical branch including various bishops and archbishops, among them being Bishop Hugo de Wells, who draughted the Magna Charta. It was members of this branch of the family who founded the Lincoln and the Wells cathedrals and took a prominent part in the War of the Crusades. William the Conqueror granted the mayor of Wells to Baron Ricardus de Welles in 1068.

Charles W. Wells died May 21, 1897, " Phoenix, Arizona, and was survived by his wife and two children, but the daughter, Catherine, passed away June 11, 1897, jet a few weeks after her father's demise. The son, Gilbert, was born in 1893 ' educated at St. John's Military Academy of Wisconsin and Pomfret School, Pomfret, Connecticut.

Mrs. Wells is serving on the music committee of the National Federation of Women's Clubs and is on three state committees. She is one of the best known club women and social leaders in the middle west. Her home life was such as stimulated her interest in literature and all elevating influences. She is now serving as regent of the Burlington Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution, a position she formerly occupied during several terms. She is, and has been for eighteen years, the president of the Burlington Musical Club, which has grown from a very small organization to one with nearly six hundred members and in the course of its existence has had most of the musical celebrities of the world on its programs. Mrs. Wells was appointed by the mayor of Burlington to represent the city at the National Peace Conference, held in St. Louis, and was appointed by the federation of the state to act as a state delegate to the convention of the General Federation of Women's Clubs, held in

Chicago from June 9-19, 1914- She was also a delegate to the congress of the Daughters of the American Revolution, held in Washington in April, 1914, as in many previous years. Her home, Hickory Hill, is one of the most picturesque and attractive in Burlington and has been the home of four generations of the family. It reflects the brilliant mind and cultured taste of Mrs. Wells, whose talents and ability have led her to the position of leadership which she occupies. The circle of her friends includes many of the most prominent women in club and social life and literary circles throughout the country.

As printed in History of Des Moines County, Iowa (1915). See the original pages. Wording is the original; obvious scanning errors have been corrected, and a few may remain.