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RUSSELL, LEVI JAMES (1831-1908). Levi James Russell, doctor

and botanist, son of James and Elizabeth Russell, was born on February

17, 1831, in Hall County, Georgia. From 1850 to 1853 he mined gold

in California and in 1854 went to Pennsylvania College, where he

graduated from medical school in March 1856. He returned to Georgia

and in 1858 left for Colorado and Montana, where he and two brothers

engaged in gold mining. They were among the founders of Denver,

Colorado. While making his way back to Georgia in 1862 Russell and

his brothers were captured by Union soldiers and interned in New

Mexico for four months; Russell caught smallpox in prison. After his

release he returned to Georgia and in 1868 moved to Harrisville,

Texas, where he bought a farm and practiced medicine. He married

Mary Roe; they had nine children. Russell was for several years the

chairman of the committee on medical botany of the Texas State

Medical Association (now the Texas Medical Associationqv), which

published his report in the Transactions for 1886. He was an

incorporator of the Little River Academy, devoted to the study of

science; in 1875 he became a charter member and president of the

Association of Freethinkers of Bell County. Because of his radical views

he was expelled from the Masons and Knights of Pythias. On the night

of October 6, 1877, Russell was severely whipped for being an infidel.

He continued his medical practice and his natural-science collection in

Bell County until his death on March 23, 1908, at Temple.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: A Memorial and Biographical History of

McLennan, Falls, Bell, and Coryell Counties (Chicago: Lewis, 1893;

rpt., St. Louis: Ingmire, 1984). Southwestern Historical Quarterly,

Texas Collection, April 1945.

Clinton P. Hartmann

.....

WELLS, WILLIAM (1798-1836). William Wells, Alamo defender,

son of Charles and Sarah (Lewis) Wells, was born at Hall County,

Georgia, in 1789. He was the father of a son and daughter. He may

have traveled to Bexar and the Alamo as a member of Capt. William H.

Patton'sqv company. Wells borrowed twenty dollars from Dr. John

Sutherlandqv to purchase a Yeager rifle, on his way to the Alamo. Wells

died in the battle of the Alamo on March 6, 1836.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Albert Curtis, Remember the Alamo Heroes (San

Antonio: Clegg, 1961). Daughters of the American Revolution, The

Alamo Heroes and Their Revolutionary Ancestors (San Antonio,

1976).