John Eli Wells, the son of John Wylie Wells and Sarah Dickens Wells, was born February 9, 1827, in South Carolina. He and Katherine Barbara "Barbery" Dowdy married August 3, 1848, in Walker, Alabama. They came to Texas in the 1850s. By 1860 he and Barbery were living in Houston County as farmers and had joined the Primitive Baptist Church at Antioch and had five children - Margaret Jane, Sarah Hasseltine "Hassie", Francis, James Wiley "Jim" and Mose. By 1870 their daughter Margaret Jane had married Zib Oliver and John and Barbery had four more children - John Marcus,Darlin' Katherine, Robert "Bob" and Malvinia "Nan". Nan only lived three years. Another daughter Susan was born in 1873.

On the 24th of June 1873, John Eli was granted 160 acres of land in Houston County on Sikes Creek, a tributary of the Neches River about 21 miles from Crockett. By 1900 their son John Marcus was widowed for the second time. He and his two children Ludie E. and Delbert were living with them. Also, their daughter Margaret Jane had died and they were raising Margaret Jane and Zib's youngest child, Margaret Jane Oliver.

John Eli was a farmer and shoemaker. John and Barbery had enough powder and lead for three shots which was kept in a mattress. Their gun was buried under the hearth of the fireplace. They kept a ten dollar gold piece in an auger hole in the wall. John was a veteran of the Civil War. He had been working in the field thinning corn in the spring of 1862 when they came for him. He didn't get to tell Barbery and the children good-by. He and Barbery had raised seven bales of cotton and nine bushels of corn that spring and the army took half of that. They had five sheep which they kept to have wool for their clothes. They kept the sheep in the yard at night to keep the wolves from killing them. John was gone two years and when the war was over he walked home from Vicksburg, Mississippi, through the woods to avoid robbers. John Eli died May 5, 1906 and was buried at Antioch Cemetery.

The following obituary for John Eli Wells was taken from the minutes of the twenty-fourth annual session of the Primitive Baptist Association held at Sand Hill Church October 27-29, 1906:

"Bro J. E. Wells was born in South Carolina, February 7, 1827. He came to Texas in 1850, joined the Primitive Baptist Church at Antioch, Houston County, Texas, July 7, 1960, and lived a devoted member without ever a charge against him until the death angel came May 5, 1906."