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1883: David Phillips, bro/o Col. William A. Phillips

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09 Feb 2015 12:30 #1625 by Mamie
LOST IN THE SANDS.

Sad Fate of David Phillips, of Salina.

SALINA, June 22.-One of those terrible calamities that sometime visits a family is now recorded in the family of Colonel Wm. A. Phillips. On the 5th of June, David Phillips, a younger brother of Colonel Phillips, started for Washington territory, by the Santa Fe route. By the time he reached Yuma, on the California line, he was quite ill from the heat, but resolved to continue his journey. The train arrived at Volcano station, seventy miles west of Yuma at midnight on the 10th, where Mr. Phillips, now delirious from the effects of the extreme hot weather, jumped from the train and dashed out into the barren desert, where not even a cactus could grow. The train was delayed one hour while the train men and passengers searched for him, but owing to the darkness the search was a failure.

The next morning, Sunday, the section men took up the search and tracked him five miles, when the wind came up and in less than a minute destroyed all trace of the unfortunate wanderer. Under telegraphic instructions from Colonel Phillips in Washington, and relations in this city, hunting parties were organized in Colton to work east, and in Yuma to work west, under charge of James Phillips a nephew of the lost man.

The search was kept up until last Tuesday morning, in spite of the predictions of the plainsmen that it would be of no use, as Mr. Phillips had probably become exhausted , fallen, and had been buried alive in the sand, leaving no trace. The desert at this place is full of white sand, level and unbroken for miles until the gravel hills are reached, and utterly barren. No water is to be found in the direction the unfortunate man took for more than a hundred miles, while east and west it was eighteen miles to a water tank.

Colonel Phillips arrived in Salina yesterday, the sad news being kept from his mother, now aged over eighty, until his arrival, leaving him to break the news to her.

David Phillips leaves a wife and five children, the oldest child being a girl of fourteen. He had intended to locate in Washington territory and establish a cattle ranch. And had he waited a short time longer he would have been accompanied by the colonel, who is going to California, where his wife at present resides for her health.

On an unbroken sandy desert, without even a hillock to mark his resting place, now lies as good a man as ever resided in Kansas, beloved by all who knew him during his long residence here.

Source: Wichita Eagle, Wichita, SedgwickCounty, Kansas, Thursday, June 28, 1883; Pg. 2, Column 3

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