REV. JOSIAH PHILLIPS,
God never created an independent man
To jar the concord of his general plan.
A man's heart deviseth his way; but the Lord directeth his steps.—Proverbs AT/, 9.
Rev. Josiah Phillips, pastor of Gwynedd Baptist church, at North Wales, is the son of Owen and Rachel Evans Phillips, of East Nantmeal township, Chester county, and was born on the ioth of September, 1817.
The progenitor of this branch of the Phillips family is traced back to Joseph Phillips, who emigrated from Wales in 1755, and settled in Chester county. He built a log house, and followed weaving and farming, assisted by several sons. One of these, Josiah, settled on a farm near the present village of Lionville, in Uwchlan township. Here Owen, his son, was born in 1789, who, in 1814, married Rachel Evans, and purchased of his father-in-law a farm in East Nantmeal, where the following seven brothers were born: Jesse, Josiah, Lewis, David, Joseph, Thomas, and Abner. Our business is with Josiah, the second of these, who remained at home till his seventeenth year, when he left to learn the carpenter trade. He served an apprenticeship of three years with Isaac Miller, and with whom he also worked two years afterward. Being invited to teach a public school, he reluctantly accepted the offer, and spent the next two years alternately teaching and going to school himself. Although he enjoyed the former, he soon resolved to leave it, under the conviction of duty, to prepare himself to teach in a higher and more sacred calling.
Without making this purpose publicly known, he attended the boarding-school of Jonathan Gause, at Unionville, and entered a course of study preparatory to the gospel ministry. Previously to going to the Hamilton Literary and Theological Institution, New York, to pursue a scientific line of study, he also spent three years in a preparatory course in the seminary of Rev. Samuel Aaron, at Norristown. After some six years of preparation he entered the work of the christian ministry, and was publicly set apart to this calling by ordination as pastor of the Radnor Baptist church, in Delaware county, on the 14th of February, 1850. Here he enjoyed a pleasant and encouraging pastorate in that field of work for seven years.
At this time the subject of American slavery was at the height of its agitation, and being one of the most decidedly anti-slavery gospel ministers of the denomination, he was solicited to take an agency in behalf of the American Baptist Free Mission Society, which was organized "free from the avails of slave labor or fraternal co-operation with slaveholders." He accordingly accepted the call, and spent two years in missionary and agency work in behalf of home and foreign missionaries, under the auspices of this society. This agency labor was pursued principally in the States of Pennsylvania,. Ohio, New York, and Massachusetts.
After the expiration of this time, and a suspension of about six months on account of sickness, he accepted a call from a church at Euclid, a village on the shore of Lake Erie, near Cleveland, Ohio. Here he was permitted to see a favorable growth of the church under his care, and enjoyed there a pleasant home and work for more than seven years.
Excessive labor and consequent failure of health, however, made it necessary to withdraw for a season, on which account he returned to his native State to rest. In this retired capacity he lived one year in West Chester and two in Norristown, where he pleasantly renewed many old acquaintances. At the close of this recess, with regained health and anxiety to resume* his life-work, he entered an open door at Milestown, within Philadelphia city limits, as pastor of the Baptist church of that place. Here also the Master seemed to own the relation by His constant blessing on the means of grace. After five years he was called to his present charge, leaving many warm and kind friends behind him. Accordingly, on the 1st of April, 1875, he received a kindly welcome where he is laboring at present, in the pretty borough of North Wales.
We return to record the domestic relations of Mr. Phillips. Shortly after his entrance to the ministry, March 29th, 1853, he married Mary Ann Davis, of Chester county. The only issue of this marriage is a daughter, Clara R., who was born July 23d, 1854. She has received a superior education, having attended a public school one year at West Chester, and two years at Oak street, Norristown, where she -graduated. She next spent a year at Jefferson Grammar School, Philadelphia, thence to the girls' normal school, graduating again, and at the next commencement was made one of the teachers or faculty. On the 29th of April, 1877, she was married to Mr. Eugene H. Austin, principal book-keeper of the Farmers' and Mechanics' Bank, Philadelphia.
As a preacher, Mr. Phillips is characterized by great plainness and boldness in "declaring the whole counsel of God," being a very outspoken opponent of intemperance and other popular sins.
Source: Lives Of The Eminent Dead: And Biographical Notices Of Prominent Living Citizens Of Montgomery County, Pa., by Moses Auge, published by the author, Norristown, Pa., 1879; Pgs. 342-344
