Jonathan Phillips emigrated from Scotland to America in the 1700’s and settled in South Carolina. His son, John, who was my great-grandfather, served in the Revoluntionary War. My grandfather, Stacy Cooper, served in the early Indian Wars in South Carolina some years later.
My father, John Phillips (better known as Jack) was born in South Carolina about 1818 and died in 1848. His first wife was a Miss Jenkins and they had one daughter, Charlotte. He early became interested in the affairs of the State and was appointed to one of the military departments. He had charge of recruiting for the military arm of the service. About this time, 1835, his first wife died.
John Phillips had been promoted to military commander and married Sarah Ann Phillips (my mother), born February 26, 1823. A year or two later the war scare with Mexico became imminent and my father was appointed Captain and ordered to raise a company and get ready for service in Mexico. This he did but was taken ill and soon die. This was about 1848 or 1849.
My mother was left with three children and I was the infant. My grandfather took my mother home and care for her for some time. Then she married a Mr. Odell. He had a family and they resided in Laurens Co., South Carolina. Mother died in 1880.
About this time there was a great caravan starting to a new country, Alabama and Georgia. My grandfather, being wealthy in land and Negroes, began getting ready to move to Alabama. He did so and settled in Benton County (now Calhoun County. There were more than thirty wagons in the group going to this new land. There was quite a lot of rain and high water and we were more than two weeks on the road. It should not have taken more than a week under ordinary conditions. There were many rivers then, no bridges and a few ferries. Some days we would come to a river and have to stay two or three days to let the waters subside. It was on this trip about the year 1853, that I saw my first RR train at Altoona Mountain, Georgia, and strange to say, I saw the same crossing in 1864 and recognized it.
There were about thirty Negroes making the trip. The older ones walked all the way and were the merriest bunch you could imagine. My grandfather, John Phillips, had sold his holdings in South Carolina except his Negroes and two of his sons had preceded him and contracted for land so we knew where to go. He had contracted for something like 800 acres. It had a water mill and a large residence two miles from Alexandria. There was also a large peach orchard on the place.
This orchard was quite an asset. It had heretofore been a liability as there was no such thing as a still for making brandy. He, Grandfather, utilized the fruit, all right. He began raising cotton, too, on a commercial scale, something that had never been done there before. His first care was to building a still house, then a gin. I have often heard him speak of his first crop of cotton, ten bales. A bale was a big crop for the average farmer.
Talladega, thirty-five miles away, was their cotton market. You would see wagons on the road with two men and one bale of cotton. About this time Grandfather began making corn whiskey, selling it to wagoners at 25 cents per gallon. Each wagon would buy from one-half gallon to a gallon. These wagons would be gone around three days, coming in many instances as many as fifty miles.
Grandfather was a very plain man. He wore cotton clothes. It was the talk of Alexandria that Old Phillips had bought 800 acres of land and had only paid one-half cash and was wearing “Coppers” cotton clothes. The talk was that Colonel Ramey, the party who sold the land, would get it back that fall. But several weeks before the payment was due, Grandfather sent two sons back to South Carolina for the balance of the money. He had been told that Ramey was getting ready to come to Texas and had offered to discount the notes at a pretty good percent. The sons who had driven through in a carryall returned with every cent of the money two or three weeks before the note was due. Ramey was getting anxious to discount the note and offered additional inducement, probably a half-cent more. Grandfather called on him and asked him if he had the note. He said that he had left it with an attorney at Jacksonville, sixteen miles away. Grandfather told him to bring the note over to his house and he would give him the money. Ramey tried to get the money than, stating he would bring the note the next day. Grandfather showed him the money and made tender of payment. Ramey got busy and drove to Jacksonville that night and was at Grandfather’s for breakfast the next morning, to his surprise. Every dollar was paid, and most of it in silver. This raised old man Phillips in the mind of everyone. I have heard him tell abut the men that had formerly called him “Old Man Phillips.” It was now “Mr. Phillips.” I have seen my grandmother making thread buttons for his shirts like eyelet, or tatting.
He got his mill over-hauled, his gin and still started, bought another mill, and built another still. Then it was that Old Phillips had things humming. He loaned money to every man wanting it, and soon bought other farms and Negroes, until he was the richest man in the county living in the country.
Now we come to his sons:
I. Abel Phillips married a Miss Hollingsworth, a sister to Uncle Jim Hollingsworth, who had three children at that time.
II. Lewis Phillips married a Hogan, stopped in Georgia, and remained there many years and had three children, a daughter and two sons.
III. Levi Phillips went to Mississippi, afterwards lived at Shreveport, married Mary Bolt and died in Louisiana. His widow came to Alabama after his death. She and her two children came to Texas after I did and settled at a small town in Denton County. She died there many years ago and three or four of the children are dead. The Caddells are some of them and are prominent, I hear.
IV. John Phillips, the next son, married a Miss Vessel, had four children and settled at Calhoun County, where he lived the rest of his life. He came into possession of Grandfather’s old home. He died several years ago, his wife soon after. This was the John who treated me so shamefully.
V. The next son, Newton Phillips, came to Texas in the early years and settled near DeKalb in Bowie County, and had several children whom I never knew. He and his wife died long ago.
VI. I think my mother was next, Sarah Ann Phillips. There were five children: Ophelia married Mr. Parker and had five boys and two girls. Mr. Parker died abut seventeen years ago. Jack died later and had a daughter younger than Jack, then Will, Jim and Bob. Ophelia died at Harlingen ten years ago and Tom died three years ago.
VII. The next son of my grandfather was Charles Philips, who married Mary Carroll, had three daughters, died in Calhoun County together with his wife many years ago.
VIII. Catherine Phillips married J.D. Hollingsworth and had thirteen children: (1) Bob Hollingsworth, the oldest was in my Company. He was married twice, to two sisters. He visited Texas ten years ago and died soon after he returned home of cancer. I failed to mention Bob Hollingsworth, the oldest who was in my Company. He married one daughter of a Mr. Nance. She died and he married the other. They had many children who all settled in Calhoun County. (2) Elizabeth Hollingsworth was married first to Zack Nance and had one daughter, Zack was supposed to have been captured during the War. (3) Lizzie Hollingsworth married Billy Atkins and all their children are in Calhoun County. (4) Martha Hollingsworth married John Atkins (a cousin to Billy Atkins). Both of these were in my company and made the best of soldiers. They had several children, all in Calhoun County. (5) Patsy Hollingsworth came to Texas about 1882 and first settled at Weatherford, married and raised several children. (6) The next was a daughter, Adelaid Hollingsworth, who married Charles Littlejohn nd settled at Irene. They had several children who all settled around Irene. (7) Next a son, Andrew Hollingsworth, married a Miss Boozer, had several children and settled in Calhoun County. (8) Don Hollingsworth married a Miss Hudson and had several children who all reside at Hillsboro. (9) Abel Hollingworth married a Miss Phillips, a cousin of his and mine. They settled in Georgia, became rich, but lost most of it. (10) W.C. Hollingsworth married Miss Addie Phillips, a cousin of his and mine.
IX. The next Phillips girl was Mary, who married a Mr. Wingo, by whom she had one child. He, too, was in my Company and died soon after the War. Mary then moved to Yazoo Co. Mississippi and married a very wealthy planter. They had two boys who are still very rich, I am told. I never met any of them.
X. George Phillips married a Miss Mattox in Green County, was in the Cavalry and had three daughters, two of whom married first cousins, one married W.C. Hollingsworth and the other Pelham Phillips. The other was single when I last heard from them.
XI. Victoria Phillips married Henry Burroughs, had several children and settled in Arkansas. I never knew any of the children.
XII. Joseph Phillips (about my age) married a distant relative named Phillips and settled in Burnet Co., Texas. He, too, belonged to the Cavalry and had four or five children. He visited me while I lived at Waxahachie.
XIII. The next daughter, Madora Phillips, married a Methodist preacher named William Cobb, settled in Blount County, and had five children. I visited Aunt Madora while on a visit to Alabama nearly forty years ago. One of her sons, Newt, went to Cuba during the War with Spain and married the daughter of a wealthy sugar planter, a Spaniard, and became immensely rich. I had an invitation to his wedding.
This winds up the history of the Phillips family, except my mother, unless I have overlooked some of them. I wish to state that members of the Phillips family were of the most prominent of the country folk in the county. We were almost to a single exception Methodists.
Source: Texas State Genealogical Society, Stirpes, Volume 40, Number 2, June 2000; Pgs. 33-45
NOTE: The above information is an excerpt from: The Phillips, Cooper & Dandridge Families, A Genealogical History, by Joseph Phillips Cooper, 1932
