Virginia Burwell

Virginia Burwell was born in Winsted, Connecticut, on 30 March 1896. She was the fifth of six children. Her father owned the Burwell Coal & Lumber Company. According to her daughter, the family believes that she attended public school in Winsted. Virginia Burwell graduated from Vassar, probably in 1917 or 1918.

Virginia Burwell married Donald Breckenridge Wells (1884-1953) in Winsted, Connecticut, on 2 October 1919. Her husband graduated from Yale in 1907 and from Johns Hopkins Medical School in 1911. He was a captain in the United States Army and served in World War I, and later, he was the Chief of Surgical Staff at Hartford Hospital. Virginia and Donald Wells lived on Ledyard Road in West Hartford. They had two daughters: Virginia Wells Andersen; and Elizabeth Wells Fahl. Virginia Wells built a house on Mountain Road in West Hartford after the death of her husband on in 1953. She lived there until her own death on Thanksgiving Day, 27 November 1975.