He served a single term in the Wisconsin State Assembly, representing Waukesha and New Berlin in the 1849 session.
[1] Wells arrived in Waukesha County in 1837, and served as the first public school teacher in the village's tamarack log schoolhouse, during the winter of 1837–1838, with a student body of between 25 and 30 children.
[3]: 646 In 1841, he had served as the secretary of the Prairieville Democrats when they held a meeting on July 6 in preparation for the upcoming September territorial general election.
[4] On September 26, 1848, he served as a delegate from Waukesha County to the Wisconsin's 1st congressional district convention of the newly organized Free Soil Party, which nominated Charles Durkee for Congress.
In March 1849, when the Wisconsin State Agricultural Society was organized, Wells was elected as a member of the executive committee.