HANFORD (Kings Co.), June 16.-The death of Dixon Phillips, 75, at his home in Oakland yesterday removes one of the earlier superior court judges of Kings County. He was the second to occupy the bench, succeeding the late Justin Jacobs in 1898. He preceded M.L. Short, who died last year and had also served as district attorney of Tulare County before Kings County was separated from it. Judge Phillips was born in Mississippi, the son of a captain in the Confederate Army and came with his family to California, in 1872, settling at Centerville, Fresno County, where he assisted his mother by teaching school at the age of 15. He and his brother planted the first cotton in Tulare County in 1873. Later he taught school in Fresno and, on being admitted to the bar in 1879, became deputy district attorney under W.D. Grady. He came to Hanford in 1881 and married Miss Florence C. Miller, the daughter of Theodore Miller, a prominent California lawyer. Judge Phillips is survived by his widow and four children, Mrs. Clinton C. Conrad, Mrs. George C. Haun, Miss Esther Phillips and Laurence M. Phillips of Oakland; sister, Mrs. Frank McClain of Hanford, and a brother, W.W. Phillips of San Francisco. Funeral services will be held in Oakland tomorrow morning.
Source: The Fresno Bee, Fresno, California, June 16, 1933
