World War I-dated partly-printed vellum DS as president, one page, 19.75 x 15.75, January 4, 1917. President Wilson appoints Francis Compston Wells as a “Third Lieutenant of Engineers in the Coast Guard of the United States.” Signed neatly at the conclusion by Woodrow Wilson and countersigned by Secretary of the Treasury William G. McAdoo. The original golden seal remains affixed to the lower left. In very good to fine condition, with scattered light staining and soiling.
Wells (1894-1941) was a native of Brooklyn, New York, who became a cadet engineer at the U.S. Coast Guard Academy at the historic Fort Trumbull in New London, Connecticut, after passing exams in the summer of 1915 during World War I. Wells married Alicia Gladys Conlin in 1918 in New York City and served in the Coast Guard until about 1921, including the last couple of years on the cutter Seminole at Wilmington, North Carolina. As a young man, President Wilson had lived in several Southeastern cities, including Wilmington. The Wells couple had a daughter named Alicia and moved to Hempstead, NY, on Long Island in the 1920s. Francis was a bank accountant, and Alicia was a public school teacher.
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