General William Wells / Dr. H. Nelson Jackson

William Wells, born in 1837, joined the First Vermont Cavalry as a private in 1861 and rose to brevet major-general, receiving more promotions than any other Vermonter during the American Civil War and taking part in more than 70 cavalry battles and skirmishes. For conspicuous gallantry at Gettysburg, he received the Congressional Medal of Honor. A French Second Empire mansion was built for him in 1877 by A. B. Fisher from a drawing in G. B. Croft’s Progressive American Architecture. After the war, Wells became prominent in politics and business and was a partner in Wells, Richardson & Co. of Burlington, makers of Paine's Celery Compound. He married and had two children, and his daughter Bertha married Dr. H. Nelson Jackson. Born in 1872, Horatio Nelson Jackson, a University of Vermont medical alumnus and Wells’s son-in-law, set out in May 1903 from San Francisco for New York City with Sewall K. Crocker and Bud the dog in a Winton car named The Vermont. In two months and nine days, they completed what is credited as the first cross-country trip in a motor car. After returning to Burlington, Jackson became a successful businessman, serving as a bank president, newspaper publisher, and owner of the town’s first radio station. Despite his age, he joined the army in World War I, earned the Distinguished Service Cross, helped found the American Legion, and died at 82.

Burlington, Vermont · United States