Daniel L. Wells, the son of David Welles, was born in Middlebury, Addison County, Vermont, on July 21, 1821. He received his education at Middlebury and very early in life became interested in the construction of railroads. As early as 1849 he began his work on the Eastern Division of the Rutland and Burlington Railroad and in 1851 to 1852 he was connected with Eastern, Page, and Company in the construction of the Rutland and Washington Railroad, which traversed in part the states of Vermont and New York.
In 1852, Daniel L. Wells went to Cincinnati, Ohio where he first became identified with the construction of western railways. He came to Wisconsin in 1856, locating at that time in Milwaukee. Immediately after his arrival in Wisconsin he was associated with the famous contractor, Selah Chamberlain of Cleveland, Ohio, in the construction of that portion of the old La Crosse and Milwaukee Railroad between Minnesota Junction and La Crosse. He also built the Menominee branch of the Chicago and Northwestern Railroad, the Michigan and West Shore Railroad from New Brooklyn to Pentwater, Michigan, the Leavenworth and Galveston Railroad, and portions of other lines which now constitute a great system of railways in the Southwest.
In later years, he became the head of the firm of Wells, Harrison, and Shute, and was prominently identified with the construction of numerous important railways. Among the lines built by this firm were over four hundred miles of railroads in Iowa and Dakota for the Chicago and Northwestern Railroad, a line from Milwaukee to Madison for the Chicago and Northwestern Railroad, and lines from Janesville to Beloit, Wisconsin, and from Hastings to Stillwater, Minnesota for the Chicago, Milwaukee, and St. Paul Railroad.
In addition to his interest in railway construction, Mr. Wells had for almost a quarter of a century the controlling interest in the car and bridge manufacturing establishment in Chicago known as the Wells and French Company, which was incorporated in 1877.
Prior to coming to Wisconsin, Daniel L. Wells married Miss Helena M. Lee, daughter of Judge Martin and Ann Wendell Lee of New York, on October 13, 1852. They had two children of their own and an adopted daughter.
Mr. Wells probably had more to do with the building of railroad lines in the West and Northwest than any other man up to the time of his death in Milwaukee on November 24, 1884.
