Among the important measures introduced and advocated by him and enacted by the boards of 1881, 1882 and 1883 were hundreds of ordinances for monumenting, opening, regulating, grading, repairing, sewering, flagging, curbing, paving and lighting various street, roads and avenues in the Twenty-third and Twenty-fourth Wards ; for extending the Croton water supply and establishing lire and drinking hydrants ; for the systematic numbering of the houses and lots ; providing for gates at railroad crossings ; for building a railroad bridge over the Harlem River, opposite Second Avenue ; for the construction of various rapid transit routes, and for the promotion of the innumerable public works incidental to and necessary for the development and growth of a new section of a great city. These public improvements have given the greatest impetus to building operations in these wards, and the beneficial results of his zealous and disinterested labors, both in the State and City Legislatures, will be felt long after the present generation has passed away.

Daring the Presidential campaigns of 1880 and 1884, Mr. Wells was actively engaged in supporting the nominees of the Republican party, and addressed large meetings in various parts of the district.

In the campaign of 1884 he was unanimously nominated by the Republican Convention for member of the Assembly of 1885, and was urged by men of both parties to accept, but he positively declined the honor on account of business engagements and his disinclination to hold office.

During the past fifteen years he has been actively engaged in the business of a real estate broker and is at present a director of the Real Estate Exchange and Auction-Room (Limited), of the City of New York. In his avocation he has gained a well-merited reputation and success, and there is no one who has had a more extensive experience in sub-dividing and bringing into market real estate in the Twenty-third and Twenty-fourth Wards and the adjacent parts of Westchester Count}', or who has a more thorough knowledge of property value in these sections, and he is frequently called upon as an appraiser in apportionment of estates and in the acquisition of lands for public purposes.