Bela Wellman
Encyclopedia
Bela Wellman was a California Gold Rush
merchant who formed the wholesale
grocery firm of Wellman, Peck and Company.
and a great-great-grandson of Puritan
Thomas Wellman
, who immigrated to the Massachusetts Bay Colony
about 1640.
Bela left home at age 12 to work on a farm in Plainfield, Connecticut
. After farming through the summer, he was able to attend school through the winter and became a clerk in a country store. He formed the cotton
textile
firm of Lamphier, Wellman and Company of Baltimore, Maryland, in 1842, and became a cotton wholesaler in New Orleans, Louisiana
. Recognizing the business opportunities of the California gold rush, he sailed from Panama
on 17 August 1849, and arrived in San Francisco on 8 November.
, green bean
s, and marmalade
as Wellman "Flavor Famous" Foods through the first half of the 20th century. The large red neon WELLMAN COFFEE sign was a mid-20th century San Francisco landmark from San Francisco Bay
.
gang were hanged on his property. The Hounds were former Mexican-American War soldiers from New York City
who hounded Latin America
n and Chinese people
through thievery and extortion.
Bela married Ruth Anna Harker at Monterrey, California on 18 May 1862. They had eight children born in San Francisco. Their eldest son, William Bela Wellman (born 7 June 1864), became the senior member of Wellman, Peck and Company after his father died in Fruitvale, California, on 31 January 1887. The Bela Wellman memorial grove was established in Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park
in 1944.
California Gold Rush
The California Gold Rush began on January 24, 1848, when gold was found by James W. Marshall at Sutter's Mill in Coloma, California. The first to hear confirmed information of the gold rush were the people in Oregon, the Sandwich Islands , and Latin America, who were the first to start flocking to...
merchant who formed the wholesale
Wholesale
Wholesaling, jobbing, or distributing is defined as the sale of goods or merchandise to retailers, to industrial, commercial, institutional, or other professional business users, or to other wholesalers and related subordinated services...
grocery firm of Wellman, Peck and Company.
Early years
Bela was the tenth of eleven children of Lot Wellman and the third born to his second wife, Rebecca (Cole) Wellman. Lot was a cooperCooper (profession)
Traditionally, a cooper is someone who makes wooden staved vessels of a conical form, of greater length than breadth, bound together with hoops and possessing flat ends or heads...
and a great-great-grandson of Puritan
Puritan
The Puritans were a significant grouping of English Protestants in the 16th and 17th centuries. Puritanism in this sense was founded by some Marian exiles from the clergy shortly after the accession of Elizabeth I of England in 1558, as an activist movement within the Church of England...
Thomas Wellman
Thomas Wellman
Thomas Wellman was born in about 1615 in England and died at Lynn, Massachusetts on 10 October 1672. He was among the early settlers of the Massachusetts Bay Colony and progenitor of the Wellman family of New England...
, who immigrated to the Massachusetts Bay Colony
Massachusetts Bay Colony
The Massachusetts Bay Colony was an English settlement on the east coast of North America in the 17th century, in New England, situated around the present-day cities of Salem and Boston. The territory administered by the colony included much of present-day central New England, including portions...
about 1640.
Bela left home at age 12 to work on a farm in Plainfield, Connecticut
Plainfield, Connecticut
Plainfield is a town in Windham County, Connecticut, United States. The population was 14,619 at the 2000 census. The town comprises four villages: Plainfield , Moosup , Wauregan , and Central Village . Each village has their own respective United States Post Office and fire department...
. After farming through the summer, he was able to attend school through the winter and became a clerk in a country store. He formed the cotton
Cotton
Cotton is a soft, fluffy staple fiber that grows in a boll, or protective capsule, around the seeds of cotton plants of the genus Gossypium. The fiber is almost pure cellulose. The botanical purpose of cotton fiber is to aid in seed dispersal....
textile
Textile
A textile or cloth is a flexible woven material consisting of a network of natural or artificial fibres often referred to as thread or yarn. Yarn is produced by spinning raw fibres of wool, flax, cotton, or other material to produce long strands...
firm of Lamphier, Wellman and Company of Baltimore, Maryland, in 1842, and became a cotton wholesaler in New Orleans, Louisiana
New Orleans, Louisiana
New Orleans is a major United States port and the largest city and metropolitan area in the state of Louisiana. The New Orleans metropolitan area has a population of 1,235,650 as of 2009, the 46th largest in the USA. The New Orleans – Metairie – Bogalusa combined statistical area has a population...
. Recognizing the business opportunities of the California gold rush, he sailed from Panama
Panama
Panama , officially the Republic of Panama , is the southernmost country of Central America. Situated on the isthmus connecting North and South America, it is bordered by Costa Rica to the northwest, Colombia to the southeast, the Caribbean Sea to the north and the Pacific Ocean to the south. The...
on 17 August 1849, and arrived in San Francisco on 8 November.
Wellman, Peck and Company
Upon arrival in San Francisco, Bela erected a building on Kearny Street using lumber he had shipped with him from Panama. He established an auction and commission business in the building under the name of B. Wellman and Company and soon specialized in groceries. The business continued after the building on Kearny Street burned in 1851. Wellman formed the partnership of Verplanck, Wellman and Company in 1861, and the company was renamed Wellman, Peck and Company when John M. Peck purchased Verplanck's interest in 1863. By 1880 the company employed 30 men in a Pacific importing and wholesale business amounting to two million dollars annually. The firm was California's largest manufacturing wholesale grocer in 1941, when it sponsored the Wellman Valor Award Medal for acts of bravery by Californians. The company marketed coffeeCoffee
Coffee is a brewed beverage with a dark,init brooo acidic flavor prepared from the roasted seeds of the coffee plant, colloquially called coffee beans. The beans are found in coffee cherries, which grow on trees cultivated in over 70 countries, primarily in equatorial Latin America, Southeast Asia,...
, green bean
Green bean
Green beans , also known as French beans , are the unripe fruit of any kind of bean, including the yardlong bean, the hyacinth bean, the winged bean, and especially the common bean , whose pods are also usually called string beans in the northeastern and western United States, but can also be...
s, and marmalade
Marmalade
Marmalade is a fruit preserve made from the juice and peel of citrus fruits, boiled with sugar and water. The benchmark citrus fruit for marmalade production in Britain is the "Seville orange" from Spain, Citrus aurantium var...
as Wellman "Flavor Famous" Foods through the first half of the 20th century. The large red neon WELLMAN COFFEE sign was a mid-20th century San Francisco landmark from San Francisco Bay
San Francisco Bay
San Francisco Bay is a shallow, productive estuary through which water draining from approximately forty percent of California, flowing in the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers from the Sierra Nevada mountains, enters the Pacific Ocean...
.
Life in California
Wellman assisted organizing the San Francisco Committee of Vigilance, and two alleged murderers from the HoundsThe Hounds
The Hounds, west coast counterparts of New York's Bowery Boys, were a nativist or anti-foreigner gang of San Francisco which specifically targeted recently arrived immigrants, particularly Spanish Americans, during the California Gold Rush of 1849....
gang were hanged on his property. The Hounds were former Mexican-American War soldiers from New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
who hounded Latin America
Latin America
Latin America is a region of the Americas where Romance languages – particularly Spanish and Portuguese, and variably French – are primarily spoken. Latin America has an area of approximately 21,069,500 km² , almost 3.9% of the Earth's surface or 14.1% of its land surface area...
n and Chinese people
Chinese people
The term Chinese people may refer to any of the following:*People with Han Chinese ethnicity ....
through thievery and extortion.
Bela married Ruth Anna Harker at Monterrey, California on 18 May 1862. They had eight children born in San Francisco. Their eldest son, William Bela Wellman (born 7 June 1864), became the senior member of Wellman, Peck and Company after his father died in Fruitvale, California, on 31 January 1887. The Bela Wellman memorial grove was established in Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park
Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park
Jedediah Smith Redwoods Park, established in 1929, was named after the noted fur trapper Jedediah Smith, who visited its location during an 1826 expedition. It is located in the northern part of the U.S. state of California, nine miles east of Crescent City, on U.S. Route 199...
in 1944.