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PAST AND PRESENT OF PIKE COUNTY. 639
lars fot 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
Colvin also own 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 ac~
quired 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. LTnto 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
neatest and best in Pearl, and was built in 1905,
of concrete blocks. It was completed on the 28th Wolwich on the River Thames and his father
of August, and has since been used for hotel paid a sum of money to secure his release. He
purposes. The building is an ornament to the then returned to his father's home, where he remained
for a short time, when he again ran away
town and a pride to its owner. Mr. and Mrs.
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 the 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