From A Biographical History of Central Kansas, Vol. I, p. 555
published by The Lewis Publishing Co, Chicago & New York, 1902 

EDWARD C. WELLMAN 

   Edward C Wellman, the youngest son of J W Wellman, is a stock farmer, associated with his father in business.  He was born in Geneseo, New York, October 1, 1875, and was there reared until five years of age, when the family came to Kansas, locating in Rice county.  After a year a removal was made to the home farm on section 28, Valley township.  The son was educated in Washburn College, of Topeka, and in the Cooper Memorial College, but laid aside his studies in order to enter his business career.  When nineteen years of age he started out in life for himself, and in 1892, when many people became bankrupt in this locality, he purchased the title to and the claims against one hundred and sixty acres of land adjoining the old homestead, securing the same for one thousand dollars.  He thus became owner of a property which he has developed into a very fine farm.  His first shipment of Poland China hogs was seventy head and on these he netted seven dollars and seventy-five cents per hundred weight.  The following year he had seven hundred acres of land planted to corn, broom corn and wheat, and his forty-four tons of broom corn brought him thirty-seven hundred and fifty dollars, he realizing from his various crops more than five thousand dollars.  As time has passed he has made judicious investments in real estate and now owns thirty-two hundred and twenty acres of land in Valley township, upon which excellent improvements are found.  He carried on farming operations until 1900 and is still in the cattle trade.  He has fed as high as five hundred head of cattle a year and now handles from two to three hundred head annually.  He has been breeding Hereford cattle and now owns some very fine stock.  He owns some of the finest animals, with excellent pedigrees, to be found in this portion of the state.  He is still engaged in farming, but rents most of his land and devotes much of his time buying and selling land and cattle.  He has a poetic, artistic nature and his library embraces the writings of most of the poets, especially those of America.  He has a keen appreciation for both the useful and the beautiful.  His splendid business ability is supplemented by a temperament that enables him to fully enjoy the writings of the great men, and such a taste cannot but influence his career.  He is regarded as a young man of superior worth and is very popular with all who knew him.  In his political views he is a Prohibitionist.  His genial manner and unfailing courtesy have gained for him a very large circle of friends and he enjoys the hospitality of the best homes of the county.