Carl Howel Wellman

was born on October 4, 1893, in an unincorporated community of Wayne County, West Virginia, known to produce potassium nitrate and named for its European reference … Saltpeter.  He was the ninth child of David Henry Wellman and Kizzie Wilson Wellman.  Carl had fourteen siblings.  When he was 18, he married Bertha Bellomy, daughter of Samuel S Bellamy and Emaline Cross Bellamy, in nearby Louisa, Kentucky.  The couple had three children: Lucille Alice Wellman in 1913, Lucian Marell Wellman in 1915, and Garland Odell Wellman in 1918.  They later divorced.  When he was 40, he married Lillian Cleo Payne.  They both are buried at Ashland Cemetery in Ashland, Kentucky, though the graves are in separate sections.

In 1914, Carl came to Kenova, West Virginia, acquired property at 1213 Chestnut Street, and built a two-story frame structure at the rear. In 1916, he made a frame building on the corner of 13th and Chestnut and bought the building to the north. In 1925, he bought the two-story brick building on the southeast corner of 13th St and Chestnut. He was a barber and operated a hotel until 1954.  In nearby Catlettsburg, Kentucky, a Wellman Barber Shop operated; perhaps this shop was Carl’s too.

Significant events during his lifetime include the Spanish-American War (1898), Wright Brothers’ First Flight (1903), Ford Mode T manufactured, the Titanic Disaster (1912), the Great War, Women’s Suffrage (1920), the Great Depression and Stock Market Crash (1929) followed by his divorce from Bertha, the Holocaust, World War II, the Cold War, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, and the Civil Rights Movement.