Cabell County, West Virginia Biography of David R. PHILLIPS ************************************************************************** USGENWEB NOTICE: Material may be freely used by non-commercial entities, as long as this message remains on all copied material, AND permission is obtained from the contributor of the file. These pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or presentation by other organizations. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material for non-commercial purposes, MUST obtain the written consent of the contributor. Submitted by Valerie Crook, , April 1999 ************************************************************************** The History of West Virginia, Old and New Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc., Chicago and New York, Volume III, pg. 125-126 DAVID R. PHILLIPS. Perhaps the best measure of success is the manner in which talents and opportunities are used at every successive stage in the individual's career. A slate picker in a coal breaker at the age of ten, then a practical coal digger and an eager student of all the technical proc- esses involved in coal mining, successively mine foreman, superintendent, and now manager, with headquarters at Huntington, of the extensive interests of the Elkhorn-Piney Mining Company—apparently there has been no time in the life of David R. Phillips when he has not kept every faculty of his being alert and responsive to the duties before him. Mr. Phillips was born at Ashland, Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania, July 5, 1859. He is of Welsh ancestry. His grandfather, Rosser Phillips, was born in Wales in 1791, and was a hotel proprietor in his native country. In 1850 ho brought his family to America, and lived for a time at Minersville, Pennsylvania, and later at Ashland, where he died in 1873. He married Janet Jones, a native of Wales, who died at Ashland, Pennsylvania. Their son, Joseph Phillips, was born in Wales in October, 1832, and was about eighteen years of age when he came to America. He became a miner at Minersville, and continued in the same industry after the family moved to Ashland in 1856. In 1860 he went to Mineral Ridge, Ohio, and worked in the mines of that vicinity until he enlisted in 1862 as a Union soldier in the One Hundred and Fifth Ohio Infantry. Later in the same year and in his first campaign he was severely wounded at the battle of Perryville, Kentucky, and was incapacitated for further military service. After recovering in some degree his health and strength he became foreman of timbering gangs for the Readings Railroad Company of Ashland, Pennsylvania, but in 1873 returned to Mineral Ridge, Ohio, and resumed mining. In 1876 he moved to Brisbin, Clearfield County, Pennsylvania, where he was a miner and a merchant. He died in April, 1892, his death being due to the results of the wound he received while in the army. At the time of his death he was overseer of the poor at Brisbin. He was a republican in politics, and for many years held the post of deacon in the Baptist Church. He was affiliated with the Improved Order of Red Men. Joseph Phillips married Rachel Edwards, who was born in Wales in August, 1838, and now lives at Phillipsburg, Pennsylvania. Their children were: Mary Jane, wife of Thomas Thomas, a miner and mechanic at Berlin, Pennsyl- vania ; David B.; Thomas, an invalid living at Warren, Pennsylvania; Joseph, a miner who died at Phillipsburg at the age of forty-nine; Rachel, wife of Joseph Morgan, a miner in Pennsylvania; Sarah, who died at Johnstown, Pennsylvania, at the age of thirty-three, wife of Charles Absalom, a mine foreman in that city; Margaret, wife of Thomas Clement, of Phillipsburg; Benjamin, who died at Johnstown, Pennsylvania, aged seventeen, having been killed in a railroad accident. David B. Phillips in the intervals of his early working career attended public schools at Ashland, and also did night school work, and while he never attended college he has gained a good literary education by private study and has the technical education of a mining engineer acquired by completing the course of the International Correspon- dence School of Scranton. As previously noted, he did his first work as slate picker at the age of ten, subsequently was introduced to other practical phases of the miner's trade in Ohio. and in 1886 became a mine foreman in Clear- field County, Pennsylvania, and remained there until he was promoted to superintendent of mines. He was for a time district manager for the Somerset Coal Company in Somer- set County, and held a similar position with the Beading Iron Company in Somerset County until February, 1905. Mr. Phillips' association with the coal mining industry of West Virginia began in February, 1905, when he removed to Tunnelton and for two years was superintendent of the Merchants Coal Company. Then for two years he was super- intendent of mines in Tucker County for the Davis Coal and Coke Company, and left that to become state mine inspector. He was in this office of the state government two years, and for a brief time after retiring was superintendent of the E. R. Johnson Mines in Logan County, and the next ten years he devoted to his duties as allotment commissioner for the Chesapeake & Ohio Railway Company. Mr. Phillips on June 1, 1920, became mine inspector for the Elkhorn-Piney Mining Company and on August 1st of the same year was advanced to manager of the company's mining properties, which are located at Weeksburg, Ken- tucky, at Dehue in Logan County, and at Powellton, Mahan, St. Clair and Stanford, West Virginia. These mines nave a working capacity of 150,000 tons a month. Mr. Phillips' offices are in the Robson-Pritchard Building at Huntington. He is well known among the coal men who have their headquarters in this city, and is a popular man of affairs in the community. He is a republican, a Baptist, is affiliated with Somerset Lodge, F. and A. M., of Somerset, Pennsyl- vania, and the Royal Arcanum, and has a modern home at 612 First Street in Huntington, and also owns a home in Phillipsburg, Pennsylvania, and other real estate in Suffolk, Virginia. In March, 1880, at Brisbin, Pennsylvania, Mr. Phillips married Miss Elizabeth Edwards, daughter of William S. and Elizabeth (Jenkins) Edwards, now deceased. Her father was a mine superintendent in Clearfield County. Mr. and Mrs. Phillips have an interesting family of seven children. Reuben C., the oldest, is a mine superintendent at Chap- mansville, West Virginia. William is a druggist at Windber; Pennsylvania. Wendell O. married and a traveling sales- man, with home at St. Albans, West Virginia, is an ex-service man, spending a year in France in the Radio Department as first sergeant. Elizabeth is the wife of Harry Pugh, a superintendent of mine commissaries in Somerset County, Pennsylvania. David is a mine foreman, living at Omar, West Virginia. Rachel is the wife of Richard Petit, owner of an electrical shop at Beckley, West Virginia. John, the youngest of the family, enlisted at the time of the World war and was stationed at Morgantown in the radio department. He has the Welsh gift for music, and is the possessor of a remarkable baritone voice and is now cultivating this talent under special private teachers in New York City.