JAMES GELLING, A resident of Millbrook Township, where he is busily engaged in farming, owning and occupying a desirable farm on section 34, is a pioneer of this county, and has been variously identified with his industries for many years. Mr. Gelling is a native of the Isle of Man, and was born in 1826, to John and Mary Gelling, who were also natives of that island. His boyhood and youth were passed in the place of his birth, and he gleaned his education in the local schools. At the age of about seventeen years he began to learn the trade of a carpenter, and followed that calling some thirty years, becoming very skillful in the prosecution of his work. A part of the time he was employed as a carpenter and joiner on his native isle, and was also thus engaged in England, and later still after coming to America carried it on very profitably. Shrewdly thinking that in this county he should have a better chance of acquiring property and securing an assured income, he determined to migrate to these shores, and in 1850 to passage no a sail vessel at Liverpool, and eleven later landed in New Orleans. Thence he came up the river to St. Louis, and thence to Peoria, whence he proceeded to Brimfield. He remained there for a time working at carpentering, or at anything whereby he could earn money, and subsequently located on a farm in Brimfield Township. He carried on agricultural pursuits there until he came in possession of his present farm. This comprises eighty acres of choice land, pleasantly located, under excellent cultivation, and supplied with every needed improvement, everything about the place betokening thrift, enterprise, and skillful management on the part of the owner. 

After our subject had been in this country nearly twenty years, he returned to the home of his birth, to secure on that little island the chiefest blessing of a man, a good wife, and was there united in marriage to Miss Jane Skinner, who was likewise a native of the Isle of Man. He immediately brought his bride to this country and established her in hi home in Brimfield, where they lived until they took up their abode in this township. 

Mr. Gelling is classed among the representative and intelligent citizens of Millbrook Township, and does credit to the snub little island which gave him birth. The sturdy principles of a well ordered life have guided our subject in all his undertakings, and all who have dealings with him, place implicit confidence in his word. He is a consistent Christian, and an active member of the Church of England. Politically he stanchly adheres to the Republican party.

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