he town clerk -- and a servant. It also records that Mary had amassed $1000 in "personal estate," presumably from a combination of writing and her salary at the bank. 
 The most extensive biography and commentary on some of Wells Smith's series fiction -- is Kimberly J. Wright, Redeeming a Life: A Study of the Life and Works of Mary P. Wells Smith (1840-1930), PhD Thesis, University of Maryland College Park, 1998. Biographical material can also be found in William R. Gowen, "Jolly Good Times: Mary P. Wells Smith and Her Books for Young People," Newsboy 39.6 (Nov.-Dec. 2001): 11-16; Geri Strecker, "'And the public has been left to guess the secret': Questioning the Authorship of The Great Match, and Other Matches (1877), Nine 18.2 (Spring 2010): 11-37. Contemporaneous accounts include "Mrs. Mary P. Wells Smith," Literary World 9 (June 1, 1878): 16; Lucile Gulliver, "Mrs. Smith and Her Books," Horn Book 3 (August 1927): 32-38 (the article -- or a longer version -- was also published as Mary P. Wells and Her Books); Margaret B. Barnard, "Necrology: Mary P. Wells Smith," History and Proceedings of the Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association 8 (1931): 19-21. One of the only biographical sketches online is Cary Sternick's "Mary P. Wells Smith and Her Series, Part 1", Thoughts of Bibliomaven, which is illustrated with photos from Gulliver's work.
The Wells family's genealogy is traced in Genealogical and Personal Memoirs Relating to the Families of the State of Massachusetts, vol. 2 (New York: Lewis Historical Publishing Company, 1910) and in Nancy Donnis's Dwight Nutting [Family] Tree, ancestry.com. Census and burial records provide additional information.
For the most part, citations will be limited to identifying quotes or sources other than those listed above and in note 2.
 Mary P. Wells Smith's reminiscences appear in the brief "Old Deerfield in Indian Times" Horn Book 3 (August 1927): 39-41 and in the first part of chapter 75 ("Mrs. Mary P. Wells Smith's Recollections") of Francis M. Thompson, History of Greenfield, Shire Town of Franklin County Massachusetts, vol. 2 (N. p., Greenfield, 1904): 1168-1173. The latter appears to be a reprint of a l etter Wells Smith sent to the Gazette and Courier and includes a little material about her mother's childhood.
Asa Child's genealogy is online at Rootsweb's MAFRANKL-L Archives; see also George Sheldon, A History of Deerfield, Massachusetts, vol. 2 (Deerfield, MA: 1896): 113. Quoted material in this paragraph is from "Old Deerfield," 40; in the next, from Smith in Thompson, 1168.
 Thaddeus's death certificate gives "phthisis pulmondes" -- presumably phthisis pulmonalis -- as the cause of death. Biographical Record of the Graduates and Non-Graduates, Centennial Edition, 1821-1921 (Amherst, 1939): 149; Massachusetts Vital Records, 1841–1910, vol. 183, pg. 286, AmericanAncestors.org.
 Smith, "Recollections," 1172. John Farwell Moors married Eunice Wells Smith on May 10, 1851. Wright is among those who identify the relationship; she also notes that one of her sources indicated that Eunice and her brother Fayette Smith might be second cousins to Mary but that she had not been able to verify the connection. That relationship has not been traced. Massachusetts, Town Vital Collections [Deerfield], 1620-1988, ancestry.com. See also Ellen [Smith?], Smith-Stratford Family Tree, ancestry.com, for the Moors-Smith genealogy.
 The name of the institution varies in different accounts: Wright identifies it as Franklin Savings Bank; Gowen and the 1878 sketch, as Franklin Savings Institution; Gulliver, as Greenfield Savings Bank. According to Wright, Wells worked at the bank from 1861-69; Smith's entry in Ohio Authors indicates she started in 1864. Ohio Authors and Their Books, ed. William Coyle (Cleveland: World Publishing, 1962).
 "Trials Of A Tall Young Lady," Springfield [Mass.] Weekly Republican, October 10, 1863: 7, America's Historical Newspapers. Wright notes that she went through the available microfilm for the Republican for 1857-59 without success in finding the story; she does not mention