RESIDENCE: 1772 Rent Rolls for Berkeley Co, VA
PA ARCHIVES, 3rd Series, Vol 22; Sutro Library, San Francisco CA
pg 389 - 1783 property inventory Franklin Twp, Westmoreland Co
pg 586 - 1785 State tax Washington Twp, Fayette Co
pg 595 - 1786 “
Horn Papers Vol III, map #11; 1945 Land patent map for Fayette Co.
LAND: U. S. Direct Tax of 1798 for Pennsylvania; 1798; National Archives, Washington DC; Record Group 58 - microfilm roll 23; San Bruno Archives; Note - lists size of his home, number of windows, etc. microfilm donated to San Bruno Archives.
LAND: Land Records, Fayette Recorder: Book C, pg 2; Book 2, pg 96; Book 3, pg 38; Book B, pg 358; Book F, pg 268; Book J, pg 159

Tunis was first recorded as having received the land grant of his father’s 318 Acres on the Potomac in Frederick Co, Virginia.  On the same day (15 June, 1770) he leased the land to a George Chapman.  His place of birth is unknown, but he must have been born around 1745, as he had to be at least 21 to inherit the land in 1769, and, when he sold 100 acres to Samuel Price on 17 Aug 1772 both he and his wife Sarah signed the document. By that time it was in the newly formed Berkeley Co, VA, which later became West Virginia.  According to land records he settled in Yohogania Co, Pennsylvania (originally claimed by Virginia) in 1772 (became Washington Twp, Westmoreland Co in 1773, Fayette Co in 1783, and Jefferson Twp in 1839).  The sale of his land in Virginia apparently defaulted, as on 16 Aug 1773 he and Sarah signed a second deed for the property to George Chapman (who had previously leased it).
The "Commissioners appointed for adjusting the claims to unpatented land in the Counties of Monongalia, Youhogania and Ohio" who gave him 400 acres in the County of Youhogania on the waters of Redstone, which he settled in 1772, on 18 Dec 1779, in the 4th year of the commonwealth. A copy of the deed was recorded for Washington Twp, Fayette Co which confirmed the land as surveyed on 4 Feb 1785 should belong to Tunis Wells, per the previous document. A final document by the "Supreme Executive Council of the commonwealth of Pennsylvania" on 23 Feb 1790 further describes his tract of land and lists it as 423 acres, referencing the previous documents and survey.
He purchased a Singletree Iron at the estate sale of Samuel Griffith on Oct 10th, 1779 which was appraised by Richard Noble. In the LEGACY article by the Sunday Tribune-Review (Greensburg, PA) it states "Jefferson Township, split from Washington Township in 1840 along the northwestern edge of Fayette County, was settled as early as 1761. However, Indians drove William Jacobs and other pioneers away. Later, residents included Prior Theobald, Lawrence Harrison, Andrew Linn, Samuel Jackson, Jesse Martin, William Elliot, Peter and William Patterson, John Dixon, William Forsyth, William Goe, TUNIS WELLS, William Norris, and a man named Wiseman. It was named for Thomas Jefferson." A tract of 400 acres on Big Redstone Creek was granted to Tunis Wells by the Commissioners at Redstone Old Fort (Brownsville) on 18th Dec, 1779 and recorded on June 15th, 1780. On Feb 4, 1785 it was surveyed to him, and a land patent for the tract was issued on Feb 27th, 1790. It cost him £3, 10 shillings, sixpence. His property was listed in Franklyn Twp, Westmoreland Co in 1783 as consisting of 150 Acres, 3 horses, 3 cattle, 6 sheep with 8 inhabitants. Tunas Wells of Washington Twp, Fayette Co is listed as paying State tax of £11, 6.5 shillings in 1785. He served on the jury for the Forcible Entry Trial of James Hutchison on Sept 22, 1785 in which Hutchison was found "not guilty". The HISTORY OF FAYETTE COUNTY, PA. by Ellis (1882) pg 618 states "Mr. Wells settled there about 1780, his wife died soon after. They had 6 children, all of whom died prior to 1882. He married again to Margaret Williams and they had 8 more children. He had one of the two early blacksmiths in the area, a Reason Grimes." He paid State tax of £12, 11 shillings in 1786. He was taken to court by Robert Snodgrass for a debt of £16 during the March 1787 Court Session.
He is listed as Tunnis Wells in 1790 (mis-indexed as Jones Wells) with: male 3<16, 3>16 fem 5 females; He sold 194 Acres to James Laughlin on 1 June 1790 for 5 Schillings. He was executor for the will of Jonathan Chambers, written 29 Feb 1792 and recorded 28 March 1792. He was chosen as a collector for Rev. Jacob Jennings of Dunlaps Creek Church on Feb 24th, 1795, and it was recorded that he collected £5, 14 schillings. His house was listed as 22 X 20, 2 stories with 6 windows, 12 lights and built of logs in the 1798 Direct "windowpane" Tax for Pennsylvania. The house was valued at $115 and the 200 acres of land at $850 (tax= $1.74). Between 1790 and 1800 they had another 4 daughters and a son (either this is in error, they had a son who died young, or it is James and the other data on his birth is incorrect). His 3 oldest children, Richard, William and Sarah apparently moved to Henry County, Kentucky around 1795 based on the fact that Richard had a child in Pennsylvania in 1793 and they start showing up on Tax lists in Henry Co around 1800.
The 1800 census lists him as Tunes Wells and his family as: male 1<10, 1=10-16, 1=16-26, 1>45 fem 4<10, 2=10-16, 1=16-26, 1>45 They subsequently had 2 more daughters, plus Joseph (1803) and Jacob Jennings (1805) before Tunis died in 1809. He sold 6 Acres to William Jones on 30 May 1806 for $60. And on 17 Jan 1808 he sold 76 Acres to his son John for $400, under the condition that it not be sold during his (Tunis') lifetime - to be paid for in installments.
He died in 1809 on his Washington Twp farm and is buried in the Dunlap's Creek (originally Nemocollings Creek) Presbyterian Churchyard, as was Margaret. The boundaries were changed in 1839 and this became Jefferson Twp at that time. His will was written 19 June 1809 and recorded 11 Dec 1809 in Uniontown. In it he bequeaths a total of 226 Acres of land, the rest having been sold earlier. He gave:
* his wife Margaret 100 Acres, the Mansion house, the orchard, timber, and a horse for her natural life or widowhood to raise and educate his minor children.
* John the 76 Acres that was formerly sold to him, free and clear, which adjoined the land of James Laughlin, Michael Flood and James Patterson.
* James 50 Acres of land, including the crabtrees adjoining James Patterson's land, a mare and a cow.
* Richard, William and Sarah he gave $1, they having already been provided for.
* Nancy, $40 to be given in two years, plus a horse, a featherbed and bedding and a cow within one year.
* Polly, married to Isaac Downs, a horse.
* Rachael a horse.
* Betsy a featherbed and bedding, and a cow at her marriage or within two years.
* Joseph and Jacob he gave 50 Acres each of the land bequeathed to his wife, to be received at her death or remarriage.
* Margaret Rebecca and Charlotte, he gave a featherbed, bedding and cow when they turned 18. Executors: Henry Bateman Goe and James Patterson.
Witnesses: Hugh Stewart, Samuel Sampson, & Joseph Lyon.
His tombstone is recorded in Dunlap's Creek Churchyard; where the original church was, not the current one. When we visited in 1991, Margaret's tombstone was down, broken and covered with grass and Tunis' could not be found, as the cemetery was in disrepair as early as 1882 and later used as a park by the local children.
Margaret raised the children and then lived with her son Jacob for a while prior to his move to Ohio, then lived on her own again. She, Joseph, James, and John continued to live in Jefferson Twp, Fayette Co where she died in 1845. Joseph continued running the family homestead until his death in 1877 and was survived by his wife, Anne and son James. The original house and barn, along with about 100 acres are still being used for farming, and were owned by the Chalfant family in 1991. The Wells family was said to have been Scotch-Irish and devout Presbyterians (on his wife’s side?).