Milton Holmes Welling was born 25 January 1876 in Farmington, Utah. He attended local schools in Davis County, later entered the Latter-day Saints College, and completed his education at the University of Utah.

Welling was elected a member of the board of trustees of Brigham Young College in Logan in 1906. From 1910 to 1912 he was a member of the Utah State Legislature. In 1916 he was elected on the Democratic ticket to serve as the Utah Representative to the U.S. House of Representatives, and he served two terms until 1920, having been reelected in 1918. His first vote as a member of Congress was for the Declaration of War against Germany. Later, in 1918, he made an inspection trip to the battlefields of Europe as a member of a congressional committee. He was a close adherent to the policies of President Woodrow Wilson to win and preserve the peace.

From 1925 to 1928 he served as director of registration for Utah and was elected secretary of state of Utah in 1928. He served in this position until 1 January 1937. During this time he supervised the landscaping of the Utah State Capitol grounds.

He was appointed by Secretary of Interior Harold Ickes to make a survey of public grazing lands in 1937 and 1938. Following this, he resumed his agricultural and mining pursuits. On January 1943 he accepted a war service appointment as auditor with the Army Air Corps and also served with the War Assets Administration in Salt Lake City until his death on 28 May 1947.

Mr. Welling was an active member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, serving as president of the Malad Stake and later as president of the Bear River Stake. He also belonged to the Sons of Utah Pioneers. He was a great believer in the preservation of historical records, and after his passing his family presented to Utah State University more than four hundred volumes, many of which covered the critical events during the World War I period.

He was twice married. He first married Sarah Brackett Richards on 26 December 1900 and they had two children. Following Sarah's death, he married Alice Sylvia Ward in 1906 and they were the parents of three children. Milton H. Welling was buried in the cemetery at Fielding, Utah.