HISTORY OF THE ABRAHAM PHILLIPS FAMILY, Dallas County, Missouri By Judith McClung. 1987. ABRAHAM PHILLIPS Abraham was born in Tennessee about 1811 (according to the 1850 Census). We have no early records to tell about his early life or anything about the family of which he was a child. We know that he grew up in eastern Tennessee but do not know where. The 1830 census of Monroe Co., TN has a Polly Phillips with a son born between 1810-20, which is possibly our Abraham. The 1840 census of Blount County shows him with his wife and four sons under 5 years. The 1850 census of Blount on page 252 gives the family all born in Tennessee: Abraham, 39; Ann, 38; Haram (Herman) 14; Elijah 13; Benjamin, 11; Will, 9; Silas, 8; John, 7; Warran, 5; George, 3; James, 2; and Sarah, 1. It is not known where Abraham was born, reared and married. His oldest children report that they were born in Monroe County from 1836 to 1840. The younger ones report they were born in Blount. This was a very isolated area due to the mountains separating the new territory from the settlements in Virginia and North Carolina. The rivers cut valleys through the area but mountain ranges stood between the rivers. (See map) We do not know anything about the family in which Abraham grew up. In the census records, he stated that he was born in Tennessee so we know that his father had to be one of these early pioneers of the eastern Tennessee mountains. His father must have died by 1830 as Polly appears in that census to be a widow. Just four doors down is the Josiah Phillips family. Josiah is of the age to be a brother to Abraham's father. Josiah was born in 1791 and appears to have moved into Cades Cove about the same time as Abraham. Mary (Polly) does not appear in the 1850 census and was probably deceased by then. Because Monroe County was a part of the Indians' Hiwasse area, there were no early marriage records kept. We do not have Abraham's marriage record. We only know from the census record that his wife's name was Ann. The pioneers struggled to support themselves during all kinds of adverse conditions. When Indians were threatening, they plowed with a rifle over their shoulder. When there was little money, they bartered: beaver, buckskin, bear, wildcat, fox, coon and mink were the common exchange. Michael Frome relates: " a ham of deer could be either marketed or smoked for eating at home. Deerskin, like buckskin could be dressed and cut into plowlines, bridles, and traces. Deer horns served for spoons and buttons, the antlers for coat racks and the rifle rack . . . He borrowed from the Indian. Each cabin, for instance, had a hominy-block, a large block of wood with a hole burned in the top, as a mortar, in which a wooden pestle was worked. Even the red man, who despised the white intruder, was obliged to respect his adaptability to the wilderness." (2) About 1838 Abraham moved from Monroe County to Cades Cove. The Cove held a special attraction to the settlers. It was a large tract of fertile flat land nestled in the Smokies. The communty there had churches, school, mills, and most of the necessities. It was abundant in game, streams to fish, nuts, and berries. As word got around, more and more people moved there. There is no record that our Abraham owned land in Cades Cove. It appears he lived on someone else's land and many people did at that time. A few investors, such as Faute, owned large portions of the land without residing there himself. As more and more people moved into the beautiful Cades Cove, the population rose to nearly 700. The land could not support so many people. There were no sanitary facilities, not even outdoor privvies. Perhaps ground water became contaminated. At any rate, many people moved out in 1850 & 51. The Phillips family went up to Clay County, Kentucky where they joined forces with others moving westward. It was an arduous journey from Cades Cove through all the mountains in eastern Tennessee and the Cumberland Mountains in southern Kentucky. We do not know how many were in the party moving with them, but a comparison of surnames from Cades Cove to the Clay County records shows many duplications. Clay County includes that area that now takes in much of Owsley and Jackson counties. There were already Phillips families living there. The John Phillips family from Virginia had been there since the early 1820s and Charles Phillips and family from Monroe Co., TN had moved there in the 1830s and 40s settling on Sturgeon Creek and White Oak Branch. These rivers are adjacent one another but feed different rivers. (See history of Charles Phillips family -- Charles is of age to be Abraham's uncle). The group from Cades Cove must have been in Clay County for a short period of time, for Benjamin Madison fell in love, and did not move on with the rest of the family. He married into a Clay County family -- the Scalfs. Some of the Adams family was in the group that made the trek to Missouri. Lacy W. Adams had been a resident of Blount Co., TN then of Clay County, KY since 1842 and had purchased 50 acres on Buzzard Creek where he lived until the removal in the 50s. He is on Clay County tax lists until 1854. He settled in Missouri about three miles west of Abraham Phillips in Sec. 6 of Twp. 34, R. 18. A Mary Adams lived at first with Abraham's family and then took out her own land later, a mile south-east of his. About 1856 the family made the trek from Tennessee to Missouri. There is tradition that a wagon train came from Clay County, Ky to Dallas Co. with families who had known each other from KY and Tenn. We have no family records from this time period, but we do know the trip was a difficult one with rivers to cross and hills to climb. (See following page for map of the Ky-TN area.) Imagine what it would be like to pile all your belongings into a wooden wagon drawn by a yoke of oxen. This was the way many of the Dallas County settlers made their way to their new homes. "The Dallas County, Missouri Story" states: they traveled on Indian and buffalo trails, crossed the many streams by fording or by crude rafts they made by felling trees and lashing them together to cross the larger rivers including the wide Mississippi. there were often accidents and many became ill on the trail causing some families to drop out of a caravan until the sick became better or died." We do not know who the others were on this westward trek but a William T. Phillips, b. 1836 arrived in Missouri from Tenn. and had a child born in Missouri in 1858 (1860 Dallas Co. Census). Abraham settled in Dallas County, Missouri. The earliest records were destroyed by rebels during the Civil War but an old plat book survived all the fires. It shows Abraham just south of what is now Bennett Springs State Park in 1858. Abraham purchased land twice. Both pieces were in Range 18, Township 34. The first purchase was in Section 3, the S.W. quarter of the southeast quarter. It was purchased 12 March 1858. The second piece was in Sec. 10 and adjoined the southern boundary of the first purchase. The second portion was in the northwest quarter of the northeast quarter. The Niangua River runs through this land. It is good bottom land. Most of it is a field and it has trees and a steep hill on the west side. A spring on the hill is called "Dutt Cave" by the people who have lived in the area. (Related by Marvin Evans). The author visited this area in the 1960s by coming in from the east to what was known as the old Murrell homeplace. It was rented at the time so not much was learned about it. We visited it again by coming into it from Ivory Phillips' home on the top of the hill above the spring. On that visit was located the remains of an old dwelling long since gone. All that was left was the large flat rock used for the front door step and a pile of rocks of what remained of the fireplace. See Appendix for deed and estate probate. In a letter to the author from Millie Coffelt Paul, dated 8 March 1965, Millie writes: From my childhood memory of Dad and George talking family history, I kept remembering someone going back to Tennessee. Clara (Jones) wrote me about Abraham going back to Tennessee. she says to sell his land, but there is something else in my mind that they talked of him going back for besides selling land. My dad and George said that Abraham's wife died on the way from Tenn. to MO. Clara says I am wrong, but my memory was that Abraham's wife died either on the first trip they made, or else it was on this second trip. I can still hear them tell about how dissatisfied and unhappy he was after that and that he always talked of going back to Tennessee but he died in a few years. In 1860 we find the last census in which Abraham is still living. He was listed as age 48 and born in Tennessee. His wife is not listed with him as she had already died. In his household were Elijah S., 22; William R., 20; Silas, 17; John, 16; Jasper, 14; George, 13; Marion, 12; Sarah A., 9; and James, 7. It was quite a cabin full of young people to raise. The youngest children must have especially missed having their mother. The land was fertile, water plentiful, and no doubt game was available. Travel overland was very difficult given the rugged terrain. Perhaps they used the river to haul goods to market. Even though Dallas county had been settled in the 1840s, the area where Abraham brought his family was quite desolate. James Brice had settled at the springs in 1848 the rest of the area was settled during the 1850s and later. It was still a wilderness. In 1893 the Buffalo Reflex carried an autobiographical account of an early settler of Dallas County. He describes what life was like in the 1840s and 1850s. The article was continued through several editions so only some exerpts will be used here. "It was no unusual thing to see 25 or 30 deer at one sight and close enough by to count them correctly. Turkeys were so plentiful that we could roughly estimate the game at 100 to 300. We didn't have to shoot them, but caught them in pens built for that purpose. If we shot a turkey it was for diversion. Turkeys fish and venison was no variety. We could have either we wanted. We killed deer principally for their hides. If it was very fat, which was not often the case, it was salted and kept for future use. . . We wore our buckskin suits wherever we went -- hunting, to mill, cornhusking, log rolling, fishing and even to church. On all occations, taking with us our flintlock rifle, even to church on Sundays. ". . . our early methods of living, and among other things, an early patch of Squaw and Popcorn was indispensible. A patch of early Irish potatoes was the next matter of importance. With these and other vegetables such as corn, pumpkins, onions, cabbage, etc., we usually had a sufficiency of eatables of this sort. " . . . We made some improvements in civilization, dress, manners, etc. By this time we could have a school, select of course. All men of families in a community would appoint a day and place to "center" in regard to having a school and building a school house . . . then some cut logs and some made clap-boards with which to cover a press-pole roof. We finished it the same day, for we put no floor in it and used split poles for seats, putting legs in the round side of the pole and turning the flat side up. We had no door shutter. Then we hired a teacher at seventy-five cents a month per scholar, payable at the end of the term. About the first of July, school commenced, and our books consisted of a blue-backed speller, some fool's cap writing paper and a bottle of poke berry ink. We had to go in warm weather for we had to go bare-footed, both boys and girls. Boys wore the actinical shirts and pants and straw hats of their own make. The girls wore their copperas striped dresses. ". . . Our methods of farming were exceedingly rude. We usually grubbed our land with chopping axes, too badly worn to be of further use for chopping. New ground was broken with a bar- shear plow with wooden mouldboard for a wing to turn the dirt under . . . We sometimes used a shovel plow even in breaking new land. It was slow business with either. We hitched either a horse or yoke of oxen to the plow and pulled out to breaking . . . We went on with our crop till it was ready to gather. Then with a span of horses or a yoke of cattle hitched to a good sized ground slide with a box rudely constructed of clap-boards, we drove into the field to gather corn and haul to the crib or rail pen and throw down in a heap, ready for husking. Then we would set a time to husk and invite all the neighbors to come and help. Husking day was a jolly day for all. The Captains were selected, the heap was divided and the captains took their respective positions with their men to the right or left, as the case may be. Now for which party should beat. A good supply of new corn whiskey was on board, and all went merry as a marriage ball. After the corn was cribbed and shucks penned, all repaired to the main dwelling and partook of a bountiful repast, and frequently it emerged into an old-fashioned hoe-down. "Our usual method of gathering in pumpkins was to force as many on a stick as one boy could carry on his shoulder and carry them home that way. Then for peeling and cutting them for drying. By this means we prepared that part of our winter sauce, and that was not the worst of it, we used it to make pies, custards, etc., and often used it in making what we called `corn dodgers'. They were delicious." The sale bill of Abraham's property On the 19th of Sept., 1868 would have been shortly after his death. It lists two horses, cattle, eleven sheep, pigs, three plows, three sets of plow gears, some carpenters tools and a wheat fan. This gives us a general idea of their way of life. It is likely that Abraham was buried in the Phillips Cemetery on the "Johnny Poole farm" as it is located just across the river to the east of the Abraham Phillips homesite. There is a low spot there for crossing the river. We may never know, as many of the early graves were never marked and many of those which were have since been destroyed. ==================================================================== USGENWEB NOTICE: In keeping with our policy of providing free information on the Internet, data may be used by non-commercial entities, as long as this message remains on all copied material. These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or for presentation by other persons or organizations. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material for purposes other than stated above must obtain the written consent of the file contributor. This file was contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by: Judith McClung ====================================================================