Biographical Sketch of James S. PHIPPS (1893); Chester County, PA Contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by John Morris . *********************************************************************** USGENWEB ARCHIVES NOTICE: Printing this file within by non-commercial individuals and libraries is encouraged, as long as all notices and submitter information is included. Any other use, including copying files to other sites requires permission from the submitters PRIOR to uploading to any other sites. We encourage links to the state and county table of contents. http://www.usgwarchives.net/ *********************************************************************** Source: "Biographical and Portrait Cyclopedia of Chester County, Pennsylvania, comprising a historical sketch of the county," by Samuel T. Wiley and edited by Winfield Scott Garner, Gresham Publishing Company, Philadelphia, PA, 1893, pp. 234-5. "JAMES S. PHIPPS, for many years a prominent and prosperous farmer of Uwchlan township, but since 1877, a resident of the city of West Chester, is a son of Jonathan and Isabella (Peters) Phipps, and was born February 6, 1823, on the old Phipps homestead in Uwchlan township, Chester county, Pennsylvania. There he grew to manhood, receiving his education in the common schools, and after leaving school engaged in farming. For a number of years he taught during the winter season, and at one time was widely known and popular as a teacher. After some eight or ten years spent in this manner he abandoned teaching and devoted his entire attention to agricultural pursuits until 1877, when he removed to the city of West Chester, where he has since resided, practically retired from active business. He still owns and directs the operations of two fine farms in Uwchlan township, one consisting of one hundred and ten acres of valuable land and the other containing about one hundred and thirty acres. Both are well improved and in a good state of cultivation. Mr. Phipps is a member of the orthodox Society of Friends, and a republican in his political opinions. He is a man of sound judgment, strict integrity, and great upright- ness of character, and has been called on by a large number of his friends to serve in the position of guardian and trustee. He now has in his keeping many trusts of this kind. He was elected justice of the peace in 1866, and remained in office until removing from the township. "On November 31, 1849, Mr. Phipps was wedded to Hannah James, a daughter of Hon. Jesse James, of West Nantmeal township, this county. To their union was born a family of two children, one son and a daughter: Margaret, who married J. E. Armstrong, now a large oil operator residing at Petrolia, Ontario, Dominion of Canada; and Jesse, who died February, 1872, aged four years. Mrs. Phipps died in April, 1877, in the forty-seventh year of her age. "The Phipps family is of English extraction, and was planted in America by John Phipps (paternal great-grandfather), who came over from England in 1686 and settled in Uwchlan township, Chester county, Pennsylvania. He took up one thousand acres of land, which is now owned in part by the subject of this sketch and his sister. Joseph Phipps (grandfather) was born in 1750, and after his father's death inherited the latter's estate and spent his entire life in agricultural pursuits. He was accidentally killed while on his way home from court. In politics he was an old-line whig, and in religion a Friend, or Quaker. He married Mary Ann Keeley, by whom he had a family of nine children, four sons and five daughters. One of these sons was Jonathan Phipps (father), who was born on the old homestead in 1790, and being left an orphan at an early age, by the death of his father, he was reared and educated by his mother. After attaining manhood he engaged in farming, and passed his days in the cultivation of the soil. He was a whig and republican in politics, a strict adherent of the Society of Friends, and died in 1866 at the advanced age of seventy-six years. In January, 1818 , he married Isabella Peters, of Delaware county, and to them was born a family of eight children, only two of whom now survive. They were all members of the Society of Friends, and lived active, useful, and honorable lives."