[Written by Karen (Wells) Weir with information from Walter T. Wells - Late 1980's or early 1990's]
After his father died when he was eight, Bill took odd jobs from neighbors and relatives to earn extra money for the family. His jobs included selling hickory nuts and working in the fields. He was especially handy with machinery.
At the age of 17, a farmer for whom he had worked as a farm hand took him to Tennessee on a cattle drive. They drove one hundred head of cattle from Tennessee to Wayne County, Illinois with the help of only one other man, excepting the first two days when two other men helped to trail-break the cattle. The farmer was so impressed with Bill that he asked him to oversee a plantation in Mississippi. Bill refused this offer after observing what was involved with the position (i.e. the "need" for a whip and a gun).
He continued to work odd jobs until he was about twenty years old. At this time, he and a cousin went to Northern Illinois looking for work together. They were, however, hired separately. Bill was hired by a German grain farmer. The cousin's employer said Bill "would never earn his salt" because he was in town every weekend. The cousin was docked for time off, but Bill's employer said he earned time off because he was such a good worker. He continued to work for this man another year.
Falls were spent in southern Illinois with his family. He shucked corn by the bushel, receiving about two cents per bushel, and did odd jobs like mending fences. When he was twenty-three or twenty-four, he and a friend went to North Dakota on a landseeker ticket. They went between the time when corn was "laid by" (cultivated) and harvest time. While in North Dakota they worked for a man as wheat harvesters. They were asked to continue working for this man as they were good workers who were good with machinery. However, they had promised to return to Illinois and their landseeker tickets were ready to expire; so, they returned to Illinois.
Upon his return, he once again spent the time from corn planting to corn harvest in northern Illinois and late fall and winter with his family in southern Illinois doing odd jobs as he found them. During corn shucking time, he never had to look very long for a job as he was an excellent shucker with a good reputation.
At the age of twenty-five, he married Maude May Montgomery in Richland County, Illinois. They lived in Wayne County with Bill's family during the summer of 1907. Bill farmed rented land that year. In the fall, they moved into a log house on a rented farm known as Hughes farm. It was located in the Gallager section of Decker Township, Richland Co, IL. They lived here for about six years. Wm. Henry (5-18-08), Lola M. (12-22-09 / 11-21-02), and Cynthia Elizabeth (8-27-11) were born in this log house.  Family trips were taken in a "surrey with the fringe on top" during the early years of their marriage.
Bill farmed the rented land and picked up odd jobs to supplement the family income. One of the men for whom he worked, Wilbur Hawkins, fired him because he was only working half a day. Bill would finish the work of two men in half a day and spend the rest of the day working his own land. Mr. Hawkins said he was paying for a full day's work and so he fired Bill for working only half a day despite the output he was receiving in that time.
The family moved about one and a half miles northwest to the "old John Sonner's place" in the early fall of 1913. Bill and John Sonner went into partnership. They started a dairy farm with ten Holstein dairy cows which were obtained in Chicago. Bill rode the train back from Chicago with the cows. The dairy venture failed mainly because of poor roads. The "market" for their products was twelve miles from the farm and during bad weather were impassable often making delivery impossible. They spent three years on the "old Sonner place".
Bill also rented farmland on which he planted grain. During these years, he traded a young horse for twenty acres of land known as the "lost twenty". This was his first land purchase. Walter T. (10-5-13) and Jessie M. (9-5-16) were born while they lived here.
In 1916, they bought forty acres about three and a fourth miles south of Noble on the Noble-Mt. Erie Road. While living here, he and a neighbor, Thurmon Decker, bought a hay baler. They did custom baling in the fall to supplement their farm incomes. Bill eventually obtained full ownership of the baler.
The baler was eventually sold to a man who will always be remembered as "the tramp". Tramps were often seen and one had been teasing school children during baling season. Elizabeth had been scared by one and when the man who had purchased the baler came to the house, she screamed, "The tramp, the tramp!". Bill grabbed his gun and took off to scare the tramp off. Later, it was learned that the baler had broken down and the man, who had been working long hours and was sweaty and scraggily because of it, was just looking for Bill to help repair the baler.
They lived on this place for about three years. Virgil M. (12-19-18) was born there. They kept this forty acres and the house, into which Bill's mother, sister Elizabeth and nephew Pearl moved when Bill moved his family to a larger farm in the Gallager area (Aunt Lola's). This move took place in 1919.
They bought their first car in the spring or summer of 1919. It was a second-hand Chevy touring car. The car Bill bought was to be parked in the barn. Upon returning to the farm, he dropped the family off in the front of the house and pulled into the barnyard. When he got to the barn door, he hollered, "Whoa, boy", but the car did not respond so he quickly turned the wheel and took another turn around the barnyard.
In the early fall of 1923, they moved back to the house on their own property. They remained here until the fall of 1926 farming their own sixty acres and another sixty acres of rented land. The land was rented from a bachelor farmer, George Hudson. Lillie Opal (10-14-23), who died at birth, and David Omer (11-6-24) were born here.
In the fall of 1926, they rented and moved to the Rigg's place in Wayne County. This was a 720 acre farm. However, a stock trader named Dewey Shannon rented 160 acres of blue grass grazing pasture with an artesian well on it.
Bill farmed 360 acres of the Rigg's place. The house on this property had thirteen rooms. The roof of the house was flat in the center rather than coming to a peak which made it unique. Ruth E. (6-15-26) was born here. It was while renting this 360 acres that he bought his first tractor. It was a Fordson. During the time they lived here, they rented their forty acres to someone else.
In November 1929, they bought property in the Gallager area which they had rented in 1919. They used their forty acre property as a down payment for this 240 acre farm which would later be purchased by daughter Lola and son-in-law Frank Wade.
This was depression time and the payments on this property were too high. They, therefore, traded for the old farmhouse one half mile southeast. This property had fewer acres (160) and lower payments. He and his sons continued to farm this 160 acres, the "lost twenty", and two hundred acres of rented land. He also did custom work throughout his farming years - baling, woodcutting, carpentry, crop harvesting (oats, wheat, and hay), etc.
He held various public offices in his lifetime. The first office he held was County Tax Collector for Decker Township. He later served as school board member for McCauley and Gallager school districts and a number of terms as Decker County Clerk. During the depression, Bill worked on a W.P.A. project building the Olney Community Building in Olney City Park. He worked for the U.S. Agriculture Department in the Soil Conservation Division. He measured land for the "soil bank" program. He also tested stored grain for moisture levels and spoilage for the Agriculture Department.
Telephones were in use since 1914. They got electricity in 1954. Indoor plumbing came in 1956 or 1957.  
Bill retired from farming in the fall of 1960. He and Maude moved to a house "in town". The house in Noble, Illinois was katty corner from the Christian Church. They lived here together until Maude's death in 1966. Bill lived alone the remaining years of his life. Bill remained active throughout most of his life. He enjoyed hunting and gardening and continued these activities into his nineties. He died July 12, 1975 at Richland Memorial Hospital. He was ninety-five years old and cared for himself until his hospitalization in the spring of 1975. He is buried beside his wife at Cresthaven Memorial Park on U.S. 50 in Richland County, Illinois.

To them were born ten children - William H., Lola M., Cynthia E., Walter T., Jessie M., Virgil M., Roy B., Lillie O. (who died in infancy), David O., and Ruth E.
[Obituary] from grandson Jay Wells
William T. Wells, 93, of Noble, died Saturday evening at Richland Memorial Hospital.
Services will be at 2 p.m. Tuesday at the Zirkle Funeral Home with Pastor Steve Kimbrel officiating. Burial will be at Crest Haven Memorial Park. Visitation will be from 4-6 p.m. and 7-9 p.m. today.
Mr. Wells was born Sept. 6, 1881 in Wayne County to David and Malinda McCleary Wells. He was married June 26, 1907 to Maude Montgomery, who died in 1966.
Shortly after his marriage, Mr. Wells moved to Decker Township, where he operated a farm until retirement. He was a member of the Wynoose United for Christ Church.
Survivors include sons, Walter of Hammond, Ind., Virgil and David Omer, both of Highland, Ind., and Roy B., Rt. 1, Noble; daughters Mrs. Frank (Lola Mae) Wade, Rt. 1, Noble, Mrs. Elizabeth Gaillard, Miami, Fla., and Mrs. Ervin (Jessie) Greeson, Highland, Ind.; a brother, Fred Wells, Mt. Erie; a sister, Mrs. Mamie Butler, Merriam, Kan.; 25 grandchildren, 15 great-grandchildren; several nieces and nephews. He also was preceded in death by a son, Wm. Henry, a daughter, Mrs. Ruth Henry, two brothers, John and Charles, a sister, Mary Elizabeth, and two grandchildren.