William Bittle Wells was an editor, publisher, and insurance agent who lived most of his life in Portland, Oregon. Born in Floyd County, Virginia, in 1872, he was the son of George and Lucinda Phillips Goodwin Wells. The family migrated to California in 1874 and moved to Portland in 1881. William attended Portland High School (where he founded The Student magazine) and Portland Academy. He went to Lawrenceville School in New Jersey in 1892-1893, and graduated from Stanford University with a degree in English in 1897.
In 1898 Wells helped to found The Pacific Monthly, an influential west coast review. He sold his interest in the magazine to 1906 and became the editor of the Pacific Monthly's successor, the Southern Pacific Company's Sunset Magazine in 1907. In 1905 he married Mabel Lavern Parker. While at Sunset, Wells organized the Bureau of Community Publicity, a subsidiary of the Harriman railroad system (which then included the Southern Pacific and the Oregon-Washington Railroad and Navigation Company), which worked with business groups in various localities and created elaborate advertising brochures designed to attract home seekers. From 1917 until his retirement he worked as a special agent for the New York Life Insurance Company. He was also an amateur violinist and composer who helped to found the Portland Symphony Orchestra.
From the description of W. Bittle Wells papers, 1834-1964 (bulk 1888-1964). (Oregon Historical Society Research Library). WorldCat record id: 62417093
