California Biographies
Mendocino and Lake Counties, California
 
Transcribed by Peggy Hooper

This file is part of the California Genealogy & History Archives 
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cagha/index.htm

 

Source:
History of Mendocino and Lake Counties, California
With Biographical Sketches
History by Aurelius O. Carpenter And Percy H. Millberry
Illustrated, Complete In One Volume
Historic Record Company, Los Angeles, California, 1914


W. S. PHILLIPS. � The Phillips familv has been well represented among 
the most creditable citizens of their section of Lake county, where they have 
resided since 1871, when James Phillips, father of W. S. Phillips, came to 
the property the latter still occupies. Mr. Philips has sold some of his land, 
at present holding but forty acres, which, however, is one of the most attrac- 
tive farms in the Bachelor Valley precinct. With the ambition and energy 
for which the family is noted, he has made notable improvements on his place, 
and has prospered steadily, becoming one of the substantial farmers in his 
locality, where his personal worth and thrifty habits are well known and 
appreciated. Mr. Phillips is a native of Wayne county, Iowa, from which 
state his parents moved to Nebraska when he was quite a young child, and 
later to California, making the trip with horses and wagons. They arrived in 
Contra Costa county in October, 1865, and lived there for several years hav- 
ing settled east of Mount Diablo, one and a half miles from the "Stone House" 
on the Marsh grant. In the spring of 1871, after three dry seasons, several 
families decided to leave that neighborhood, and among them were the 
Phillips and Mendenhall families, who came into Lake county together, 
settling in Scotts valley, in what is now the Bachelor Valley precinct, where 
these names have ever since been deservedly respected. Mr. and Mrs. James 
Phillips lived and died in the house where their son, W. S. Phillips, now resides, 
and the forty acres which he owns was part of their ranch. He sold his 
interest when their estate was probated, but later bought the land, and has 
since sold eighty acres. 

W. S. Phillips was born April 12, 1858, and spent his boyhood in the 
several states where the family resided, receiving such common school advan- 
tages as the various localities afforded, and a practical knowledge of ranch 
life by first-hand experience. He has put much labor and care into the im- 
provement of his land, keeping abreast of modern methods in his work, which 
he has carried on profitably, doing it so well that the results are a benefit to 
the whole vicinity. His enterprising and systematic operations have brought 
their own rewards to him in crops remarkable for abundance and quality. 

Mrs. Phillips, whose maiden name was Armelda Catherine Harmon, is 
like her husband a native of Iowa, and is a cousin of Judge Judson Harmon. 
They have had three children : Clarence L., living in the Bachelor Valley 
precinct, who married Miss Delia Wilson ; Melvin, who assists his father 
on the home farm ; and Bernice, who is in her senior year at the Clear Lake 
Union high school. 

Mr. Phillips supports the Democratic party on political issues. His 
brother, W. C. Phillips, is at present serving as supervisor from the Third 
district of Lake county. His paternal grandmother was Eliza Douglas, a 
cousin of Stephen A. Douglas.