Wells, Texas, Cherokee County. (original) (raw)

The 1934 Wells High School girls basketball team
Photo courtesy Arcadia Publishing &
The Cherokee County Historical Commission

History in a Pecan Shell

Wells was named to honor Maj. E. H. Wells, a civil engineer for the Kansas and Gulf (Short Line) Railroad when it arrived in 1885.

A post office was granted in 1886, and by 1890 the town was booming with fifty people, three general stores, and a hotel. When a charcoal-producing camp for the state penitentiary iron works at

Rusk opened near Wells, it hurt growth until it closed. With the camp gone, Wells prospered. A bank opened in 1913 and by 1914 the population was estimated to be 300. The population was 475 by the mid 1930s, which grew slowly but steadily until 1990 when it reached a high of 761.

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