How does a woman from New Zealand become interested in the history of northern Trumbull County?

If you ask Janet Wells, a 70-year-old genealogist from Christchurch, New Zealand, she will tell you that a strong curiosity about her family ancestry led her on a journey that ended up in Gustavus Township, nestled between Greene Township and Kinsman Township.

Her journey also ended up with two historical fiction novels and a third one on the way.

Wells discovered that her fourth-generation uncle, John Hall, left England for America in the mid-1750s.

Hall’s daughter, Polly, married Gustavus Pelton, whose grandfather, Josiah, left Connecticut after the Revolutionary War in 1800 to find more land and greener pastures.

The entire Pelton family followed Josiah “out west,” where they settled into the Western Reserve, which in 1803 would become the state of Ohio and what is now Gustavus Township.

“I was fascinated by an entire extended family, within my own heritage, packing up and leaving Connecticut to actually start a new community,” Wells said. “So I wrote a book called ‘Taming the Wild Grape.’ I gave the book this title because at the time there were wild grapevines growing everywhere in that area.”

As Wells explained, “historical fiction” is based on facts, with surrounding fiction to give the reader a complete picture of the story.

“The Pelton family actually created an entire community,” Wells said. “They started a sawmill, a church, various markets, everything. They purchased 6,605 acres of land to divide among the family and sell to others who were coming ‘out west.'”

In order to achieve maximum accuracy, Wells traveled to Trumbull County in 2022 to talk to as many people as possible.

She visited cemeteries and other historical landmarks and organizations to get a complete feel for her project.

“The Trumbull County Historical Society and Trumbull County Genealogy Society were extremely helpful,” Wells said. “I was able to learn more about the Pelton family and how it created the community that is now Gustavus Township.”

What is notable, according to Wells, is that the same development going on in Gustavus was also going on everywhere in the new “Western America.”

While “Taming the Wild Grape” depicts northern Trumbull County from 1800 to 1818, Wells gathered enough information to write a second book, “Secrets Not Shared. ”

This book will be published in December.

It focuses on Josiah Pelton’s widow, Chloe, who was active in the church and risked her safety to help fugitive slaves reach Ashtabula where they were taken by boats to a life of freedom in Canada.

“The deeper I got into the research, the more fascinated I became in the true growth and development of America,” Wells said.

To that end, Wells is currently working on the third novel of her trilogy, which has yet to be titled. This book continues the story of the Pelton family through the eyes of Josiah Pelton’s granddaughter, who leaves Ohio and travels further west to Iowa in 1838.

Bad luck and poor farming skills befall the family, who gets involved with counterfeiters and horse thieves and is run out of Iowa.

Wells and her husband of 32 years, Graham, traveled back to Trumbull County earlier this month, kicking off three months of research and promoting the first two novels.

“I am also planning a visit to Iowa,” Wells said, “to complete the research of the trilogy. It’s a labor of love and one that I have truly enjoyed.”