WILLIAM M. JAMES is the editor and manager of the Breckenridge Telegram. He has only had charge of this paper for three years, but during that time he has increased its circulation three hundred percent and made it one of the leading Republican papers of Northern Minnesota.  His father, Robert James, was a prosperous farmer on the north shore of Lake Erie, in Elgin County, Ontario, having come to Canada from the north of Ireland. His ancestry, however, was Scotch. He died in 1893.  His wife, Lorena Markle, was born in Ontario, and is still living in Elgin County.

The subject of this sketch was born on the farm in Elgin County, Ontario, February 16, 1858. He received his education in the common and high schools of Ontario, which are noted for their thoroughness, and graduated from the Collegiate Institute at St. Thomas, Ontario, in 1881. He taught school, however, previous to his attending the institute, and also while pursuing his studies—seven years altogether, two years of which were spent in St.  Thomas. Mr. James first came to Minnesota in September, 1883, locating at Minneapolis, where he worked for a time in a wholesale hardware house. He moved to Breckenridge in 1884, having received the appointment of principal of the graded schools at that place, which position he held for three years. He then went into the mercantile business, but sold out the following year 1888. At this time he was appointed postmaster at Breckenridge by President Harrison, holding that office during the latter’s administration.

In 1880 Mr. James also engaged in the drug and stationery business, in which he is still engaged.  In 1893 Mr. James entered into partnership with J. C. Wood and bought the Breckenridge Telegram, of which he assumed charge as editor and manager. In October, 1896, Mr. James became owner of the paper, which by his pluck and perseverance, as stated above, he had built up to be one of the leading papers of that part of the state. Mr. James political affiliations are with the Republican Party, and he has been active in promoting its principles. He has served his county committee as secretary for six years. He also acted as village justice for eight years. He is a member of the Masonic fraternity and a Knight templar; also a member of the Knights of Pythias and the A. O. U. W. His church connections are with the Methodist Episcopal church.  He was married in 1886 to Maggie Harvey, daughter of the late William Harvey, M. P., of Canada. They have had four children, Harvey, Horace, Ada and Mary.

ROBERT JOSEPH WELLS is a successful farmer, lawyer and local politician of Wilkin County, Minnesota.  He was born in Dane County, Wisconsin, October 4, 1856. His father is Andrew J.  Wells, a native of Clermont County, Ohio, and now living with a competence on a fine farm in Wilkin County at the age of seventy-eight, looking back upon a useful and successful life. The elder Wells has always been a farmer except during a short period in Wisconsin when he operated a sawmill at Eau Claire. His only official position was on the board of commissioners appointed to make selection of the state school lands in the northern half of Wisconsin. His wife, whose maiden name was Eliza A. Wilson, was born near Port Republic, Maryland, in 1822.  Her father was a soldier in the War of 1812 and her grandfather was in the War of the Revolution.  In the early days her people were slaveholders, but during a religious revival, which swept across Maryland, nearly all of her relatives liberated their negroes. She is of a family related by ties of blood to old and noted Maryland families.

Mr. Wells’ boyhood was spent with his parents at their Wisconsin home. He attended the common schools until about fourteen years of age and then went to work. His first dollar was earned in his fathers shingle mill at Eau Claire. When twenty-two years of age he was attracted to the Red River Valley by the stories of its wonderful fertility, and with a number of young men from the neighborhood emigrated to Minnesota. In May of the year 1878 he settled in Mitchell township, in Wilkin County, entering a homestead and “working out” for the first summer.  His success was instantaneous. He took up more land and has ever since farmed from one thousand to sixteen hundred acres each year. But while busily engaged in extensive farming operations, Mr. Wells found time to study law, and in 1888 was admitted to practice. He has been much interested in local politics and has held many minor offices such as justice, village trustee and president of the board. Shortly after he was admitted to the bar he was elected clerk of the district court, and in 1892 was chosen again by the citizens of the county. At present he is chairman of the county Republican committee and a member of the Seventh district congressional committee. Two years have been put in by Mr.  Wells as a newspaper man—1890 as editor of the Breckenridge Mercury, and the year 1893 in the editorial chair of the Wilkin County Gazette. Mr.  Wells belongs to the A. O. U. W. and Masonic orders. He has been secretary, senior warden and master of Frontier Lodge, No. 152, A. F.  and A. M. of Breckenridge. He attends the Baptist church, though not a member. On January 17, 1889, he was married to Sadie E. Langford, at Dodge Center, Minnesota. They have two children, Carroll V. and Donald J. Wells.  In recent years Mr. and Mrs. Wells have resided in Breckenridge.