Sedgwick County KSGenWeb

Portrait And Biographical Album of Sedgwick County, Kan.

Chapman Brothers 1888

Pages 310 - 312 

EDGAR W. PHILLIPS. The splendid farm owned by this gentleman, in Salem Township, is a standing monument to his industry, perseverance and good management. He comes under the category of self-made men, having been thrown upon his own resources early in life, and has succeeded only by the exercise of his steady, plodding labors, both mental and physical. Just at this time he is one of the prominent representatives of the agricultural and stock-raising interests of Southern Kansas. He buys and ships largely to the Kansas City markets, and has one of the finest farms in the township, and one which, from the manner in which it has been cultivated and supplied with buildings and machinery, affords him the facilities for carrying on his chosen calling in the most successful manner. The farm comprises 320 acres of land, located on sections 25 and 35, and is one of the special points of attraction along the southern line of this county. 

    Our subject, a native of the Green Mountain State, was born in Addison County, March 28, 1847, and is the son of Joseph and Doretha (Eastman) Phillips, the former living in Tecumseh, Johnson Co., Neb., and the latter deceased. The Phillips family is of English ancestry, and was first represented in America prior to the Revolutionary War. In that war the paternal grandfather of Edgar W., Solomon Phillips, served as a soldier under the illustrious Washington, and fulfilled well his part as a military man. After the close of the struggle he settled in Addison County, Vt., where his son Joseph, the father of our subject, was born. His death took place after he had arrived at an advanced age. He was a blacksmith by trade, and followed the manufacture of scythes for several years, at that time they being made by hand. The maternal grandfather of our subject was a stonemason by trade. His name was Ichabod Eastman, and he was probably of English descent. The renowned Wendell Phillips was a second cousin of the father of our subject. 

     The subject of this history was but four years of age when he was deprived of the affectionate care of his mother by death, and although so young it was not long before he realized what a change this bereavement had effected in his life. Eight years later, in 1855, in company with his father and other members of the family, he emigrated to Illinois, locating among the pioneer settlers of Salem Township, Knox County. Young Phillips and Mr. W. H. Egan were instrumental in giving the township in which he now lives its name. 

     Mr. Phillips continued a resident of Illinois until after the outbreak of the late war, and was a youth of but fourteen years when the first shell was directed toward Ft. Sumter. Although impatient for the fray he was too young to enter the army, and waited with what patience he could summon until he could be admitted to the ranks. In this he was gratified on the 28th of March, 1864, becoming then a member of Company B, 11th Illinois Cavalry, under command of Col. Carr, of Galesburg. This regiment had been organized by the renowned Col. Robert Ingersoll. The company of young Phillips was assigned to duty in the army of the West under the immediate command of Gen. A. J. Smith, 16th Army Corps, at Vicksburg. He participated in one severe battle at Egypt Station, on the Mobile & Ohio Railroad, and various minor engagements, but his duties as cavalryman were principally as a scout and patrol, also to forage and destroy the bridges of the enemy, and other duties similar. He continued in the service until October, 1865, and received his discharge at Springfield, Ill. 

     At the termination of his army experience Mr. Phillips returned to Knox County, Ill., and employed himself at farming, in the meantime laying his plans for a future home of his own. With this end in view he took to himself a wife and helpmeet, Miss Emily Adams, the wedding occurring at the home of the bride, on the 24th of March, 1868. Mrs. Phillips was born in Harrison County, Ohio, April 7, 1850, and was one of a family of five children, the offspring of William L. and Nancy (Timmons) Adams, also natives of the Buckeye State. Her brothers, Wilson, John W. and Henry, and her sister, Annie M., the wife of Albert Oman, are all residents of Knox County, Ill., where the father is now residing, the mother having died in that county in 1861. The Adams family, like that of our subject, was of English descent, and William L. was one of the early pioneers of Knox County. He is now in the seventieth year of his age, in the enjoyment of good health and the esteem of a large circle of friends. His life has been one of industry, and his character that of a true man in the highest sense of the word. 

     In the fall of 1870 Edgar W. Phillips started from Knox County, Ill., for Southern Kansas, driving the entire distance with a team of horses and a wagon, camping out at night, and traveling for about twenty-two days before reaching his destination. He made his way to this county, and located first on section 25 in the township where he now lives; thence he removed, ten years later, to his present farm, which he has occupied since the spring of 1880. He and his estimable wife endured all the hardships and privations incident to life in a new settlement, having come here at a time when their neighbors were few and far between, and being subjected to all the inconveniences of a distant mill and market. 

     The little household of our subject and his wife was completed by the birth of six children, of whom one, Leslie L., who was born Feb. 24, 1873, died in the following month. Lola A., their eldest daughter, was born Jan. 3, 1869; Luella M., Sept. 25, 1870; Arthur L., April 7, 1874; Willard R., Aug. 20, 1880, and Edgar W., June 30, 1885. The uncultivated tract of land upon which Mr. Phillips located with his family nearly twenty years ago has undergone the transformation which only the resolute will and the hand of industry could bring about. Mr. Phillips has been quite prominent in local affairs, and politically is a stanch Republican. He has been for a number of years School Director in his district, and was one of the nine delegates from Salem Township to the Republican County and State Convention held at Topeka, when John Martin was nominated for Governor in 1885. He has been frequently sent upon like errands, being a man of decided views and good address, one whose opinion invariably commands respect. He was elected Trustee of Salem Township, in the spring of 1885, serving in this capacity two years with credit to himself and satisfaction to all concerned. He assisted in the organization of the township, and has ever accorded a ready and cheerful assistance to all the enterprises calculated to further its interests. Socially, he belongs to the I. O. O. F., Lodge No. 174, and is a member of Mulvane Camp No. 74, and Mulvane Post No. 203, G. A. R., of which he is at present Commander, and in Mulvane Camp is Chief Patriarch. A lithographic portrait of Mr. Phillips is shown on an accompanying page of this work.

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