GEORGE S. PHILLIPS is the dean of the lumber business in Kaufman, Texas. For three decades he has been actively engaged in this business here, and he has lived in Texas since 1855, when he came here with his parents from Kentucky.
John G. Phillips, the father of George S., died in December, 1913, at Waxahachie, Texas. He was born in Missouri, in September, 1831, and grew to manhood in Kentucky, where his parents had grown up and married. He learned the wagon-maker's trade in Kentucky, and after his removal to Waxahachie he engaged in the buggy and wagon-making business, and continued the same throughout his active life. His first settlement in Texas was in Atascosa county, where he remained a few years, but the stock business with which he was connected was not to his liking and he turned to his trade, as above set forth, in the fertile blackland belt and put his reliance upon the community of Waxahachie as to future success.
While the war between the states was in progress, John G. Phillips quit his trade and aided the Confederacy as a powder-maker in Waxahachie, where a small plant was maintained, and when the dove of peace finally hovered over our country and men went to work instead of war, he dropped back into his own quiet shop, and there had a long and uneventful career. Religiously, he is a Methodist, and his political affiliation, quiet but sincere, has always been with the democratic party.
Samuel Gore Phillips, the father of John G., passed away without leaving any tangible record of himself or his ancestry. He came to Texas before the war and died in Waxahachie during the progress of that fraternal strife.
John G. Phillips married Miss Sarah Peak, a daughter of George Peak, a Kentucky farmer. Mrs. Phillips was born a year before her husband and still survives. Their children are as follows: George S. of Kaufman; Mrs. Thomas Hunter, of Waxahachie; Miss Kate; Claud B., engaged in the lumber business at Houston, Texas.
George S. Phillips was born in Marion county, Kentucky, December 23, 1853, and was only two years of age when brought to Texas by his parents. He lived in Waxahachie through his school days and until after he had gained his first business experience. He attended not only the public schools but also took a course of study at Marvin College, Waxahachie, and he was a clerk in that town until March, 1882. He then formed partnership with S. P. Langsford of Waxahachie in farm and implement business, which continued to December, 1883. At that time he took charge of the lumber yard of the M. T. Jones Lumber Co. in Kaufman, and he has rounded out a period of thirty years of service in that same yard. For seven years he was manager of the business. Then he joined a cousin, J. H. Phillips, and bought the property, and Phillips & Phillips carried on the business until 1901, when George S. became sole proprietor. Throughout all these years this industry has been conducted on a retail basis, and in addition to lumber all lines of building material have been handled. The nature of this business has placed Mr. Phillips in a position to enter the field of Kaufman as a builder, and from time to time during his career here he has bought and improved property in the residence districts until now numerous homes throughout the town stand as a monument to his foresight as a developer of the county seat.
As a citizen, Mr. Phillips has rendered no public service save as a member of the educational board of the city, where he gave eleven years continuously to the interests of public education. As an Odd Fellow he wears a badge of honor for a quarter of a century in the order, having joined it in 1881. He is a Past Noble Grand and has been a representative to the Grand Lodge. Also as a Knight of Pythias he has filled the chairs and is a Past Chancellor. Religiously, he is a Methodist. For a number of years he was chairman of the board of stewards of the Methodist church at Kaufman and he was the first superintendent of the Sunday school here, an office he filled for three years.
In December, 1882, Mr. Phillips was married in Waxahachie to Miss Fannie F. Butler, daughter of Andrew J. and Caroline (Beat) Butler. The children of Mr. and Mrs. Phillips are Mrs. W. H. Kendrick, of Kaufman; Mrs. Fred Hicks, also of Kaufman; and Misses Daisy K., Vella and Hazel. One son, George, Jr., died at the age of five years.
Source: A History of Texas and Texans, Volume IV, by Frank W. Johnson, and edited by Eugene C. Barker, Ph. D, published by The American Historical Society, 1914; Pgs. 1968-1969
