Wilmer Cleveland Wells was a rancher, lumberman and political figure in British Columbia

British Columbia

British Columbia is the westernmost of Canada's provinces and is known for its natural beauty, as reflected in its Latin motto, Splendor sine occasu . Its name was chosen by Queen Victoria in 1858...

. He represented East Kootenay North

East Kootenay North

East Kootenay North was an electoral district in the Canadian province of British Columbia in the 1898 and 1900 elections only. Its official name was East Kootenay . It was created by a partition of the old East Kootenay riding which also created its sibling, East Kootenay...

 from 1899 to 1903 and Columbia

Columbia (electoral district)

Columbia was a provincial electoral district in the Canadian province of British Columbia. It made its first appearance on the hustings in the election of 1903. It lasted until the 1928 election, after which the revised riding was renamed Columbia River...

 from 1903 to 1907 as a Liberal

British Columbia Liberal Party

The British Columbia Liberal Party is the governing political party in British Columbia, Canada. First elected for government in 1916, the party went into decline after 1952, with its rump caucus merging with the Social Credit Party for the 1975 election...

 in the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia

Legislative Assembly of British Columbia

The Legislative Assembly of British Columbia is one of two components of the Parliament of British Columbia, the provincial parliament ....

.

Wells was first elected to the assembly in an 1899 by-election held following the death of William George Nielson. He was named to the provincial cabinet in 1902 as Commissioner of Lands and Works but was dropped from cabinet soon afterwards because it was alleged by the opposition that he was an agent of the Canadian Pacific Railway

Canadian Pacific Railway

The Canadian Pacific Railway , formerly also known as CP Rail between 1968 and 1996, is a historic Canadian Class I railway founded in 1881 and now operated by Canadian Pacific Railway Limited, which began operations as legal owner in a corporate restructuring in 2001...

. Wells was defeated when he ran for reelection in 1907. In 1907, he bought the Hume Hotel in Nelson

Nelson, British Columbia

Nelson is a city located in the Selkirk Mountains on the extreme West Arm of Kootenay Lake in the Southern Interior of British Columbia, Canada. Known as "The Queen City", and acknowledged for its impressive collection of restored heritage buildings from its glory days in a regional silver rush,...

 from John Frederick Hume

John Frederick Hume

John Frederick Hume was a miner, notary public and political figure in British Columbia. He represented West Kootenay South in the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia from 1894 to 1898....

. Wells died in Vancouver at the age of 93.

The settlement of Wilmer

Wilmer, British Columbia

Wilmer is a small settlement near Invermere, British Columbia. The settlement was originally known as Peterborough and was founded in 1886. The explorer David Thompson founded a Northwest trading company post near the present-day site of Wilmer after crossing the Rockies via Howse Pass in 1807....

was named after him.