JAMES NELLIS, Postmaster, is one of the old business men of Kendallville. He is a native of New York, born near Fort Plain, upon a farm, where he was reared until sixteen years of age. He then learned the trade of carriage making at St. Johnsville, where he remained for five years carrying on the business there. In 1855, he came to Kendallville and started a carriage shop, and for about twenty years was engaged in that branch of industry. He manufactured all kinds of wagons, carriages, buggies, etc., continuing until 1867, when he was appointed Postmaster of Kendalville [sic] and engaged in the duties of that office, where we now find him. He has been, for twenty-eight years, a member of the Presbyterian Church; is a member of Blue Lodge Free and Accepted Masons of Kendallville, and a trustworthy honored citizen. He was married in 1855, at St. Johnsville, N. Y. to Miss Elizabeth Borden, also a native of New York. Mr. and Mrs. Nellis have one child--Mrs. Agatha Tyner, of Chicago, Ill.
Counties of La Grange and Noble, Indiana, Historical and Biographical, Chicago: F. A. Battey & Co., Publishers, © 1882, Part 2, p. 311-312.
Transcribed by Denise Wells, May 2013.