Guilford Wiley Wells

Who was Guilford Wiley Wells?

Guilford Wiley Wells was a U.S. Representative from Mississippi.

Born in Conesus Center, New York, Wells attended the Genesee Wesleyan Seminary and College, Lima, New York. Enlisted in the Union Army as a private in the Twenty-seventh New York Infantry May 21, 1861. He was promoted to second lieutenant in the One Hundred and Thirtieth New York Infantry in 1862 and subsequently to first lieutenant and captain in the Nineteenth New York Cavalry. Mustered out February 10, 1865, as a lieutenant colonel. He was graduated from the law department of Columbian College. He was in the Washington, D.C., in 1867. He was admitted to the bar in 1867 and commenced practice in Holly Springs, Mississippi. United States attorney for the northern district of Mississippi 1870-1875.

Wells was elected as an Independent Republican to the Forty-fourth Congress. He declined to be a candidate for renomination in 1876. Consul general at Shanghai, China, from June 23, 1877, to May 26, 1879. He settled in Los Angeles, California, in 1879 and resumed the practice of law. He died in Santa Monica, California, March 21, 1909. He was interred in Evergreen Cemetery, Los Angeles, California.