Johnson County KS Archives Biographies.....Phillips, H. L. 1848 - 
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Joy Fisher http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00001.html#0000031 March 18, 2009, 10:15 pm

Author: Ed Blair (1915)

  H. L. Phillips, agent for the Santa Fe Railroad Company at Olathe, is one of
the veteran railroad men of the West. He is a native of the Keystone State, born
in Greene county, January 9, 1848, and is a son of John and Sarah (Stewart)
Phillips, also natives of Pennsylvania. The Phillips family came west in 1863
and located near Bloomington, McLean county, Illinois, where they resided until
1877, when they came to Kansas and located on a farm near Newton, Harvey county,
and the parents spent the remainder of their lives there. The father died July
1, 1889, aged sixty-four, and the mother departed this life September 6, 1914,
aged eighty-six, and their remains rest in the Newton cemetery. H. L. Phillips
was the oldest of a family of eleven children, seven of whom are now living. He
attended the public schools of Pensylvania and the subscription schools of
Virginia, as the family home was near the State line. He was about fifteen years
old when the family removed to Illinois and he continued to attend school until
he was eighteen, and by that time had acquired a very good common school
education. He then taught in McLean county for two or three years and in 1872
took a course of telegraphy in a private school in St. Louis, Mo., and after
learning the elements of that art he entered the Chicago & Alton railroad office
at Shirley, Ill., and mastered telegraphy and taught school some in the
meantime. In 1875 he became night operator at Summit Station, Cook county,
Illinois, for the Chicago & Alton and served in the capacity of operator and
agent about a year and a half for that company. He then entered the employ of
the Illinois Central as operator at La Salle, Ill. He was there about a year
when he was appointed agent for that company at Rutland, Ill., and held that
position for six years. In 1883 he came to Kansas, making his home at Newton and
entered the employ of the Santa Fe Company as operator and agent and worked at
Arkansas City, Florence and Eureka, and on November 8, 1883, came to Olathe as
operator for that company and in the spring of 1885 was appointed freight and
passenger agent and has held that position ever since. For thirty years he has
conducted the affairs of the Santa Fe railroad at Olathe in a way that has made
many friends for the company, and beyond doubt has met with the approval of his
superior officers, as the general public has an idea of the exactness and the
near approach to perfection of the Santa Fe methods, and a man who can comply
with them for all these years is certainly a capable and up-to-date railroad
man. Mr. Phillips was married in 1875 to Miss Susan M. Gierhart, of Geneseo,
Ill. Three children were born to this union: Sarah, the wife of Clarence F.
Hoagland, of Greeley county, Kansas; Hiram W., merchant, Los Angeles, Calif.,
and Irolee, who died in childhood. The wife and mother departed this life in
Olathe, October 17, 1885, and Mr. Phillips married for his second wife Mrs.
Rebecca J. Kelley, who died October 18, 1909. Mr. Phillips is a member of the
Independent Order of Odd Fellows and the First Presbyterian Church. He is one of
Johnson county's leading citizens.

Additional Comments:

Extracted from:

HISTORY OF Johnson County Kansas
BY
ED BLAIR

AUTHOR OF
Kansas Zephyrs, Sunflower Sittings and Other Poems and Sketches

IN ONE VOLUME

ILLUSTRATED
STANDARD PUBLISHING COMPANY
LAWRENCE, KANSAS
1915


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