Merced-El Dorado-Contra Costa County CA Archives Biographies.....Phillips, William Milton 1829 - 1910
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Author: John Outcalt (1925)

WILLIAM MILTON PHILLIPS

   Among those brave and hardy men who came to California in the early fifties
mention is here made of William Milton Phillips, worthy pioneer and esteemed
citizen of Merced County, who closed his eyes to things on earth in March, 1910.
He was born in Newtown, Hamilton County, Ohio, July 30, 1829, and ten years
later went with the family to Polk County, Iowa, where his father bought a farm
near Des Moines. It was the paternal grandfather, James Phillips, who settled in
Ohio when that was a frontier state. He had come from Germany and had served in
the War of 1812, and he lived to the age of 110 years. His son, also James
Phillips, father of W. M., was born in Ohio, eventually going to Montgomery
County, Ind., and from there to Paulding County, Ohio, thence in 1839 to Iowa,
where he spent his last days. He was fairly well-to-do and raised a family of
seven children.

   William Milton Phillips acquired a good education for his day and he had the
training of the youth brought up to farming pursuits. The old log schoolhouse
was fitted with slab benches, hewed flat on one side, and he wrote with a quill
pen. Until he started out on his own responsibility he had an uneventful life.
In 1851 he went to New Orleans and was employed on Mississippi River boats until
the spring of 1852, when he was found a member of an emigrant train bound for
the Golden State. He was a fine marksman and owned a fine horse, so he was
chosen hunter for the train and he kept it supplied with fresh meat during the
entire trip. In his journeyings away from the train he met many Indians with
whom he was very friendly, having gleaned the knowledge of how to keep them on
friendly terms through his contact with them both in Ohio and Iowa. He arrived
in Hangtown in August, 1852. After mining in Eldorado County two years, Mr.
Phillips went to a ranch in Contra Costa County, later locating in Lake County,
and in 1872 he came to Merced County and took up the ranch that was to be his
home for so many years. He raised grain and stock, maintained a dairy, and made
every improvement to be seen on his place.

   On September 30, 1869, he was united in marriage with Sarah Jane Phillips,
born in Ray County, Mo., the daughter of a farmer, William P. Phillips, who
crossed the plains in 1852, and engaged in farming and stock-raising in Oregon
until removing to Antioch, Cal., in 1865. Later he went to Hollister and still
later to Fresno, where he met a tragic death in 1889, when the Dexter stables
were destroyed by fire. He had married Elizabeth Hartman, also a native of
Missouri, and she died one week after their arrival in Oregon from mountain
fever contracted en route to the West. Her daughter was a babe of six months and
she was reared and educated in California. She bore her husband seven children:
Lenora E., wife of T. L. Baldwin; Florence, who became the wife of C. O.
Freeman; Oscar Ephraim; Elmer; Ivy Eleanor, Mrs. Lockhart; William and Vivian,
deceased. Mr. Phillips and his wife were consistent Christians, doing their part
to assist in maintaining the standard of morals to a high degree. Politically he
was a Republican.


Additional Comments:
From:

HISTORY OF
MERCED COUNTY
CALIFORNIA
WITH A
Biographical Review
OF
The Leading Men and Women of the County Who Have Been
Identified with Its Growth and Development
from the Early Days to the Present

HISTORY BY
JOHN OUTCALT

ILLUSTRATED COMPLETE IN ONE VOLUME
HISTORIC RECORD COMPANY
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA
1925


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