[1] After the Civil War, she was determined to educate formerly enslaved people and their children, and relocated to Athens, Alabama, initially to care for wounded Union soldiers as a Baptist missionary.

[3] The school was sponsored by the Western Freedmen’s Aid Commission and the American Missionary Association, located in a Baptist church in 1865.

[7] Wells would teach, can fruits and vegetables for the winter, and return north to raise funds for the school in the summers.

[4] While teaching at Trinity, Wells made the acquaintance of Patti Malone and Alice Vassar LaCour who performed with the Fisk Jubilee Singers.

[1] She retired back to her summer home in Chautauqua, New York, where she was an early member of the Chatauqua Literary and Scientific Circle.