- Bulkeley Wells
Bulkeley Wells was born in Chicago on March 10, 1872, to businessman Samuel Edgar Wells and Marry Agnes Bulkeley. He was educated at Roxbury Latin School and at Harvard. He married into the wealthy family of Colonel Thomas L. Livermore, to daughter Grace Livermore. He moved to
Telluride, Colorado , and joined the executive board of the Telluride Mining Association, and headed up the San Miguel County Citizens' Alliance (SMCCA). He had a deputy sheriff's commission, and was captain of Troop A of theColorado National Guard . He was also a Mason, and an Elk. Wells became president and manager of the Smuggler-Union Mining Company after the murder ofArthur L. Collins .The Corpse On Boomerang Road, Telluride's War On Labor 1899-1908, MaryJoy Martin, 2004, pages 181 and 231.Bulkeley Wells was noted for his hostility to unions. He conducted a campaign of vilification of
Vincent Saint John , the head of the Telluride Miners' Union. Wells also leaped to conclusions when a local mine guard by the name ofWilliam J. Barney abruptly disappeared. Wells decided that a murder had been committed, and found local union leaders responsible. There was one difficulty with this scenario: there was no murder victim.The Corpse On Boomerang Road, Telluride's War On Labor 1899-1908, MaryJoy Martin, 2004, pages 11-24.Notes
*BW graduated Harvard class of 1894, Harvard has sizable BW file
*Met Grace Livermore (wife #1) while her father was agent for Amoskeag Textile Mills
*several children w/ Grace. no survivors
*Served engineering apprenticeship at Amoskeag Mills Powerplant
*Large textile mill strikes at Amoskeag while Livermore/Wells in Manchester NH
*Livermore was partners with Agassiz in Calumet and Hecla copper mine, Michigan UP
*Labor unrest in Calumet MI subject of several Woody Guthrie songs
*Livermore and Agassiz formed "New England Exploration Company" in 1899
*NEEx purchased Smuggler Union mine for $1.5 million
*Smuggler Manager Arthur Collins shot at Pandora November, 1902
*Wells appointed manager of SU by father-in-law Livermore
*labor war starts in Telluride following Collins shooting
*Built Bridal Veil, his summer house cum hydroelectric plant, in 1907
*Wells bombed in his bed, March 1908
*President American Mining Congress, Western Colorado Power Co, Director Rio Grande Southern RR
*Meets Harry Payne Whitney at poker game
*invests Whitney $ in Uranium industry, the Comstock, Hudson's Bay silver mines. Most fail
*acquires Mrs. Crawford Hill as mistress; they are both married
*Grace Livermore divorces BW 1918 in Telluride, cites "abandonment"
*attempts to reopen Comstock mines in Virginia City, NV with Whitney money (1921) leaves CO
*meets young wife of Governor Schmidt of Nevada
*expropriates said Virginia Licking Schmidt
*marries Virginia in Salt Lake City
*Whitney no longer supports Wells due to romantic liaisons
*Comstock fails
*Wells commits suicide, San Francisco CA, May 24, 1931
*leaves wife and two young children w/o support----------daughter marianne lives in elko, Nevadason died in railroad accident in NV the night before leaving for cadet appointment at west pointmusical written about him, 1991 "a difficult man"bridal veil, his scenic summer house, restored 1987grey mill building, pandora, still standingcomstock construction foundations only still evident
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