MORTIMER PHILLIPS, pioneer of Denver Township, was born in West Virginia, July 30, 1830, is the son of William and Mehetable (Gould) Phillips, is the fourth of twelve children, and is of Scotch extraction. His parents were born in Massachusetts, but when young, emigrated with their parents to West Virginia, where the paternal grandfather of Mortimer Phillips died at about one hundred years of age. His father died there in 1860, and mother about ten years later. Our subject remained at home until his twenty-first year, and worked for his father, having the privilege of attending school a few days during each winter. Mortimer was married in 1853 to Lydia (Lough) Douthit. They had seven children. Mrs. Phillips died in 1875, and our subject was married in the same year to Ellen Clark. They have six children. In 1852 Mr. Phillips came to Richland County, and settled where he now lives, entering at the time eighty acres of land. Mr. Phillips enlisted on November 1, 1861, in Company H, Twenty-Sixth Illinois Infantry, took part in many battles, and was discharged on July 20,1865. He and wife belong to the Methodist Episcopal Church, with which he has been identified for thirty years. He is a Republican, and has been Clerk of this township for eight years.
Source: Counties of Cumberland, Jasper and Richland, Illinois, Historical and Biographical, Volume I, published by F.A. Battey & Co., Chicago, 1884; Pg. 839
