BENJAMIN BENNETT PHILLIPS.
Benjamin Bennett Phillips is the president and owner of the business conducted under the name of the Torrington Coal & Oil Company and has been identified with the business interests of this city since 1905. He was born at Northport, Long Island, September 19, 1867, the only son of Charles H. Phillips, who was born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1838. For three years before the war the father was on a whaling vessel and visited practically all the waters of the globe. At the time of the outbreak of hostilities between the north and the south he joined the Twenty-fifth New York Volunteer Infantry and was promoted to the rank of first lieutenant in recognition of gallantry displayed at the battle of Antietam. He was severely wounded in the same battle, being shot in the right leg. He carried the bullet for many years after the war ended. In fact it was not extracted until 1877. His wound necessitated his remaining in a hospital for some months, after which he reentered the service in the commissary department, being unfit for further field duty. While thus serving he was captured and was confined in Andersonville prison for eleven months, during which time he made three attempts to escape but each time was captured and returned to prison. When he finally got out of prison the war was practically over. He lost his left eye also as the result of vaccination for smallpox while in Andersonville prison. In his youth he had become a locomotive engineer and was thus employed on the Long Island Railroad both before and after the war. Following his military service he resided mostly in Brooklyn, New York, and there engaged in business as a skilled decorator and sign painter. He died December 24, 1913, in the Soldiers' Home at Bath, New York. Three of his younger brothers were also soldiers of the Union army, these being Benjamin B., Stephen A. and George W. The last named is still living. The first named, Benjamin B., of whom Mr. Phillips of Torrington is a namesake, died of scurvy in Andersonville prison. The mother of Benjamin B. Phillips of this review was Almira Valentine. She was born in New York city in 1846 and died February 6, 1893. She became the wife of Charles H. Phillips soon after the close of the war and by that marriage there were one son and three daughters, two of whom died in childhood. The youngest child is Sarah E., the wife of George B. Smith, of Staten Island.
Benjamin B. Phillips acquired his education in the schools of Brooklyn, New York, but when still quite young went to work in a type foundry in New York city. He was thus employed for ten years, after which, in 1890, he went to Milton, New York, where he occupied a responsible position with the firm of Henry H. Bell's Sons, manufacturers of glove cloth, eiderdown and knit goods. He remained with that firm for sixteen years and for nine years was a traveling salesman on the road. The Bells were from Belfast, Ireland, and the firm after some time turned its attention to the manufacture of what was known as the Belfast mesh underwear. The plant was later removed to Poughkeepsie. New York, at which time the firm style of the Belfast Mesh Underwear Company was assumed. Well known business men of Torrington became large stockholders in this concern and the underwear branch was finally removed to Torrington in 1905. Mr. Phillips came with the plant and has since remained a resident of this city, but the business was discontinued in 1906. Since then he has given his attention to the coal and oil business and since 1911 has been the president of the Torrington Coal & Oil Company, of which he is now sole owner. This is one of the well established industries of Torrington and upon its organization in 1911 it was capitalized for twenty thousand dollars. Its sales of kerosene and gasoline alone now amount to about forty-five thousand gallons per month. This indicates something of the continuous growth of the business and Mr. Phillips is therefore at the present time at the head of a most important commercial concern.
On the 31st of December, 1891, Mr. Phillips was united in marriage to Miss Elizabeth Murray, of Milton, New York. She is descended from Scotch ancestors who were Masons in Scotland in a long direct line and much devoted to the order. She now has in her possession a Masonic certificate of membership that belonged to her great-grandfather Morrison, which bears the official signature of Robert Burns, the Scotch bard, and is a most highly prized keepsake. Mrs. Phillips is a daughter of Michael Morrison and Harriet Amanda (Rhodes) Murray, the former of Scotch and the latter of French descent, while Mr. Phillips comes of Welsh and Irish lineage. They own and occupy at attractive home in Torrington at No. 345 Prospect street. They have one son, Benjamin Bidwell, who was born October 27, 1892, and is now associated with his father in the coal and oil business. He was married February 10, 1917, to Miss Flossie Marion Brusie, of Hartford, Connecticut.
Mr. and Mrs. Benjamin B. Phillips are members of the Calvary Baptist church and in community affairs they take a deep and helpful interest. Mr. Phillips is now serving as the second vice president of the Torrington Chamber of Commerce. He also belongs to the Torrington Club, the Knights of Pythias and the Sons of Veterans. He is a representative business man who through individual effort, intelligently directed, has steadily worked his way upward and whose position in commercial circles is an enviable one.
Source: History of Waterbury and the Naugatuck Valley, Connecticut, Volume II, by William Jamieson Pape, published by The S.J. Clarke Publishing Company, Chicago-New York, 1918; Pgs. 568-571
