04/04/2026
1890 - Wells Hotel at Yankee Hill, Butte County, CA. CSUC.
Owner, Michael Henry Wells
Birth 25 Dec 1829, Philadelphia
Death 5 Jul 1891 (aged 61) Yankee Hill, Butte County
Burial Old Oroville Cemetery
Michael Henry Wells - A pioneer of the Pacific Coast country, who came via Panama in 1850, and after landing at San Francisco soon made his way to Oregon, was the late Michael Henry Wells, who was born in Philadelphia, in 1829. He was a graduate from Mercersburg College and was a druggist by profession. In 1850, he decided that the western country held out better opportunities for a young man of energy and accordingly he came west.
In Oregon he conducted a mercantile established and ran a pack train at Rogue River, until he lost everything during the Rogue River Indian war, when he came back into California and decided he would try his hand at mining. In 1856, he came to Yankee Hill, Butte County, and mined for a short time, then started a store, was appointed postmaster, ran a hotel and become a man of considerable importance in the community.
In 1883, he erected a new hotel building and prospered financially. He served as Justice of the Peace and was a notary public. He was a great friend to the Indians and a general advisor of the people in his section of the county. He was also interested in farming and stock-raising until his death, in 1891.
He was a Knights Templar Mason, was a master in Table Mountain Lodge for years; also belonged to the Odd Fellows, and was a true-blue Republican.
Michael Henry Wells was united in marriage in Belle Plaine, Wis., and with Miss Dora Spencer, a native of Clinton, Maine, and a daughter of J. W. and Abigail (Parker) Spencer, who settled in Wisconsin and were farmers. Miss Spencer was educated in the public schools and reared in Wisconsin. She came to California on a visit, in 1874, and resided in Oroville for a year, and it was here that she met Mr. Wells. In 1875, she returned to Wisconsin and the following year Mr. Wells went East and they were married in November of 1876. They returned to California and this has been her home ever since.
After the death of her husband, Mrs. Wells served as postmaster for seventeen years, and carried on the hotel and merchandise business, as well as the stock and grain business on her two hundred seventy-acres of land. She has three children: John, assisting his mother; Eleanor A., wife of R. W. Campbell of Oroville; and Michael W., manager of the Crystal Drug store. Mrs. Wells is a member of the Cherokee Rebekah Lodge, and is a trustee and clerk of Yankee Hill School district. She is a woman of ability and resourcefulness and is public spirited to a degree in the support of all projects for the development of Butte County. Source: "History of Butte County, Cal.," by George C. Mansfield, Pages 462-465, Historic Record Co, Los Angeles, CA, 1918.
Store and residence of Michael H. Wells at Yankee Hill and Mr. Wells in front of Yankee Hill School, ca. 1880s. Courtesy: Robert Byram.
