Among the men who have been most actively engaged in devising beneficial legislation for the old towns of Morrisania, West Farms and King's Bridge (now the Twenty-third and Twenty-fourth Wards of the city of New York), and in securing the enactment of the mea.sures that are ho rapidly transforming these former portions of Westchester County into thickly-settled sections of the great metropolis, none have been more prominent than James L. Wells. None have secured for the district more public improvements, and few, if any, are more closely identified than he with the growth and prosperity of these wards.

Mr. Wells was born at West Farms December 16, 1843. His parents are English, but have resided in New York and vicinity since 1817. He received his early education in the public schools of his native town. In 1860 he entered Kenyon College, Ohio, and remained there during the freshman year. He

completed his collegiate course at Columbia College, New York, and graduated in the class of 1865. For several years he was engaged in mercantile business at West Farms. At an early day he became interested and took an active part in the various public matters relating to the town. In 1869 he was elected a member of the Board of Education of West Farms, and by subsequent re-elections was continued in that position until the annexation of the town to the city of New York. His course in this board was distinguished by strict attention to the duties of the office, by his interest in educational matters and by the beneficial reforms which he advocated and introduced in the schools of the district.