Wells, Leonard A. 1879-1942

WELLS, DEUTSCH, LEWIS, KOHLER, PAULSON, MANNING

Posted By: Volunteer Transcriber
Date: 6/23/2010 at 15:08:41

Obituary

Leonard A. Wells

Attorney Leonard A. Wells whose death occurred in Portland, Ore., May 6, (1942) brought sorrow not only to the immediate relatives to Mr. Wells in this vicinity, but to many who will remember him as one of the promising young attorneys of Newton.

Leonard was born Oct. 30, 1879, in Crawford County, Iowa. Since he has been unable to practice law the last two or three years, he has lived at Milwaukee, Ore. - a small suburb of Portland.

Mr. Wells was graduated from the Newton High School in 1898, and from the Law Department of the State University of Iowa, June 12, 1901. After being admitted to the bar, he came to Newton and opened up law offices here in 1901, and practiced law here until 1913. He was a charter member of the Jasper County Bar Association. Only two of the charter members still survive.

Mr. Wells enlisted in the Spanish American War in April, 1898, and served for the duration. He left high school two months before graduation, but the late J. H. Beard and the Board of Education permitted him to graduate with his class. One of the dramatic features of the graduation exercises in the old Lister Opera House that year was a vacant chair draped with the American flag in which the diploma of young Wells was deposited when the other members of the class were reaching out for their sheepskins.

The deceased was married to Mary Manning of this city April 29, 1903. His wife and two daughters, Hortense, now Mrs. Cecil Deutsch and Esther Wells, who is now an instructor in the West Des Moines schools survives. Two sisters, Mrs. Mattie Lewis of Duluth, Minn., and Mrs. Edith Kohler of Newton also remain. He is also survived by a stepmother, Mrs. Grace Wells of Newton, two half-brothers, Ivan Wells and Merritt Wells of Verndate, Minn. and a half-sister Mrs. Grace Paulson of Pelican Rapids, Minn.

Mr. Wells was preceded in death by his parents, the late Representative and Mrs. N. A. Wells of Palo Alto township and by two brothers Captain William B. Wells of the United States Navy and S. H. Wells. ~ The Newton (IA) Daily News, Monday, May 11, 1942