JSFiddle - React, Tailwind, and code Playground

HTML

<table border='1'>
    <tr class="tableRow">
        <td class="cell1">cell 1a</td>
        <td class="cell2">stuff to append to cell 1a</td>
    </tr>
    
    <tr class="tableRow">
        <td class="cell1">cell 1b</td>
        <td class="cell2">stuff to append to cell 1b</td>
    </tr>
    
    <tr class="tableRow">
        <td class="cell1">cell 1c</td>
        <td class="cell2">stuff to append to cell 1c</td>
    </tr>
    
    <tr class="tableRow">
        <td class="cell1">cell 1d</td>
        <td class="cell2">stuff to append to cell 1d</td>
    </tr>
    
</table>

CSS

.tempDiv{ border:1px solid red; }

JavaScript

$('.tableRow').each( function(){
    $(this).find('.cell2').wrapInner("<div class='tempDiv'></div>");
    $(this).find('.tempDiv').appendTo( $(this).find('.cell1') );
});