Guilford Wiley WELLS, Congress, MS (1840-1909)

WELLS, Guilford Wiley, a Representative from Mississippi; born in Conesus Center, Livingston County, N.Y., February 14, 1840; attended the Genesee Wesleyan Seminary and College, Lima, N.Y.; enlisted in the Union Army as a private in the Twenty-seventh New York Infantry May 21, 1861; promoted to second lieutenant in the One Hundred and Thirtieth New York Infantry in 1862 and subsequently to first lieutenant and captain in the Nineteenth New York Cavalry; mustered out February 10, 1865, as a lieutenant colonel; was graduated from the law department of Columbian College (later George Washington University); Washington, D.C., in 1867; was admitted to the bar in 1867 and commenced practice in Holly Springs, Miss.; United States attorney for the northern district of Mississippi 1870-1875; elected as an Independent Republican to the Forty-fourth Congress (March 4, 1875-March 3, 1877); declined to be a candidate for renomination in 1876; consul general at Shanghai, China, from June 23, 1877, to May 26, 1879; settled in Los Angeles, Calif., in 1879 and resumed the practice of law; died in Santa Monica, Calif., March 21, 1909; interment in Evergreen Cemetery, Los Angeles, Calif.

Source: Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1771-Present