lars for it, but he has gradually made improvements and added to his stock to the amount of seven hundred dollars. Their hotel is one of the neatest and best in Pearl, and was built in 1905, of concrete blocks. It was completed on the 28th of August, and has since been used for hotel purposes. The building is an ornament to the town and a pride to its owner. Mr. and Mrs. Colvin also owns a house and lot on the south side of the railroad in Pearl. Formerly Mrs. Colvin was engaged in dressmaking for nine years, and had an excellent patronage, but retired from that business on account of her health. As a merchant and confectioner Mr. Colvin is enjoying a large and lucrative business, having the most extensive trade in his line in the town. Both he and his wife are members of the Mutual Protective League of Pearl, and are held in high esteem by all who know them. Their business success is creditable having been gained through well directed and earnest effort, the enterprising labors of Mr. Colvin being ably supplemented by the assistance of his estimable wife.                                        _____________                                 FREDERICK GILLINGS    Frederick Gillings, a veteran of the Civil war and a prosperous farmer of Atlas township, living on section 6, where he owns two hundred acres of rich and productive land, was born in London, England, August 19, 1837, and acquired his education in the schools of that city. His parents were George and Mary (Beckem) Gillings. The former was a plasterer by trade and followed that occupation throughout his entire life. Unto him and his wife were born three children, two sons and a daughter, of whom George and Mary are both deceased, leaving Frederick as the only surviving member of the family, and outside of his own immediate family he has no relatives in America. The father died in London in June, 1867, and his wife passed away a few years later.    Prior to his parents' death, when a youth of fourteen years, Frederick Gillings ran away from home, being possessed of an ardent desire to go to sea, and shipped as a cabin boy aboard her majesty's gunboat Rattlesnake, with which he cruised in the Black and Baltic seas during the Crimean war, spending eight months in that way. He then returned with the vessel and landed at Wolwich on the River Thames and his father paid a sum of money to secure his release. He then returned to his father's home, where he remained for a short time, when he again ran away and embarked on a sailing vessel bound for America, crossing in the steerage. He landed in New York city after a tempestuous voyage of one month and was without a dollar in a strange land where he had neither friends nor relatives. After passing through quarantine at Castle Garden he finally secured a position as waiter in the St. Nicholas Hotel in New York city, occupying that position for eight months. He next went to Lyons, Wayne county, New York, where he secured employment as a farm hand on a farm of Silas Patten, where he remained for a year, receiving eight dollars per month and his board. He afterward went to Rochester, New York, where he engaged in making plaster of Paris casts, the knowledge of which he had gained while with his father. He continued in that line of business for a year, after which he came westward to Chicago, where he continued in the same business for about four months. He afterward walked to Rock Island, Illinois, where he spent the succeeding winter, and engaged in the manufacture of plaster of Paris casts. Later he made his way to St. Louis, Missouri, where he was employed in a similar way for eight months and afterward in Cincinnati, Ohio, for a year. He then went to Monroe, Butler county, Ohio, where he worked as a plasterer until the breaking out of the Civil war.    In April, 1861, Mr. Gillings enlisted as a member of Company B, First Ohio Volunteer Infantry, and with his company went to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where they were fitted out with uniforms, being there mustered in for three months' service. He participated in the first battle of Bull Run, where the Union arms suffered defeat, after which his regiment retreated to Washington and was there mustered out of service on account of the expiration of their term, in July, 1861. Mr. Gillings returned