He was admitted to the bar in 1856 and practiced law in Rock Island, Illinois until he joined the United States Army as a first lieutenant and served during the Civil War.
[1][2] Wells moved to Colorado in October 1865 and settled first in Gilpin County.
In the territorial government, he served as a member of the lower house of the 5th general assembly.
In 1871, President Ulysses S. Grant appointed Wells associate justice of the territorial supreme court to fill out the term of Christian S. Eyster, who had resigned, and he served for four years until 1875.
However, he resigned at the end of the court's first term after serving only one year on the bench.