WELLS

NAME: Wells COUNTY: Calumet and Manitowoc ROADS: 2WD GRID: 9 CLIMATE: Snow in winter Hot summer BEST TIME TO VISIT: Anytime

COMMENTS: Located on County Road JJ between Potter and Collins. JJ is the same county road in both counties. Straddles the Manitowoc/Calumet line. State boating access to Bullhead Lake .4 mile north of Wells. REMAINS: Three residences, sidewalk for school.

Not sure about date of origin. Wells had a school, tavern, dance hall, cheese factory and three houses. The tavern was originally a general store for the area and had a post office. H. C. Benke was the proprietor when it was a store. H. C. Benke was a well-known photographer. August Enneper was proprietor when it was a tavern. I do not know when the post office was closed and the mail was later delivered from Brillion, WI.The cheesemaker lived above the cheese factory. The cheese factory was a frame building with a concrete lower floor for the cheese making. The tavernkeeper lived in living quarters attached to the tavern. These are not included in the number of houses. The signs for Wells were removed about 10 years ago, I think. The roof of the dance hall caved in under a heavy layer of snow about 1951. The building was then built smaller and was a minor bar. The tavern was built of brick and the minor bar was a more modern frame building. When the Wm. Penn school was torn down the sidewalk was left. The sidewalk goes back from the road toward where the school was and splits to reach both doors of the school. The school was a fairly good size building for a one-room school as the library was upstairs and the restrooms were below it, like a split-level building. The flagpole was located where the sidewalk splits. Submitted by: Gordon Schmidt

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