Wells Siblings Stayed Close to Home ~ 52 Ancestors #4

This week's theme is Close to Home.

My third great-grandfather, Thomas Goodwin Wells (1804-1873), traveled from New Hampshire to California, and back to Massachusetts where he died. He was one of ten children of Dr. Thomas Goodwin Wells and Lucinda Lyman. Of these ten children, almost all of whom were born in Hopkinton, Hillsborough County, New Hampshire, a few traveled hundreds of miles from New Hampshire (Georgia, Texas, California), but most remained in New Hampshire.

Siblings, Lucinda Lyman Wells (b. 1806), Edwin Ruthwin Wells (b. 1814), and Ruth Lyman Wells (b. 1816), all remained in Hopkinton, where they died within days of each other in 1882.

Brother, Edwin, actually did move around during his lifetime; he lived in Pittsburgh, California, and Georgia, before returning to New Hampshire. The two sisters, Lucinda and Ruth, lived together in Hopkinton for their entire lives.

This newspaper article from the Nineteenth Century U.S. Newspapers database (accessed using my AmericanAncestors.org subscription) lists each of the siblings who died within a week of each other in March 1882.

"Fatality from Pneumonia," Independent Statesman (Concord, New Hampshire), 23 March 1882, p. 196, col. 8;
digital images, Gale Nineteenth Century U.S. Newspapers via AmericanAncestors (https://www.americanancestors.org : accessed 25 January 2020).

"Mrs. Long," the surviving sibling in this household, was Marcia Emeline Wells, widow of Edward Long, who survived her brother and sisters by just over seven years.

Many members of the family are buried at Old Hopkinton Cemetery in Hopkinton, New Hampshire. The FindAGrave memorial for Edwin shows links to memorials for his parents and siblings.