In November 1876, the Pickens County Courthouse burned to the ground. Suspecting arson, residents wanted to punish the person responsible. After more than a year, a former slave was arrested in connection with a string of burglaries and taken to the newly rebuilt courthouse. Thinking Wells was also responsible for the arson, a mob gathered outside, ready to hang him.

From a garret room upstairs, Wells was reportedly peering down at the angry crowd when a bolt of lightning struck near the courthouse and somehow etched the anguished expression on Wells’ face into the glass of a window pane.