The Phillips Family Among the Oldest Pioneers.
(Written by J. W. Ellis for the Jackson County Historical Society.)
A. J. Phillips, one of the oldest pioneers of the Maquoketa Valley, came here with his father, William Phillips, in the month of May, 1837, and is still living hale and hearty. William Phillips, John Clark and Isaac Mitchell were undoubtedly the first men to settle where the city of Maquoketa is now located. In the fall of 1837, four other men came to this locality and settled. A man by the name of Parmeter, or Parmenter, took up a claim in what is now the heart of Maquoeeta and built a cabin near what is now the junction of Main and Piatt street and the next spring, 1838, sold the claim including cabin to John E. Goodenow. Isaac Mitchell took up a claim which he afterwards sold to William Current, which is also in the city limits; in the southwest quarter of the city. William Phillips claim was in the northeast quarter of the city and is owned in part at least by Gene Hatfield. Phillips and his family lived in a tent until he could build a cabin. John Clark claimed the land where the fair grounds now are, and built a cabin near Mill Creek, and as early as the spring of 1838 there were six cabins within the present limits of Maquoketa.
William Phillips had the forethought to bring a small hand mill with him, and when he had raised some corn the little mill was fastened to a post set in the ground near the corner of the house and for two or three years Mr. Phillips and his neighbors managed to grind enough corn in this little mill to make their bread. The mill had two cranks and two men could get up considerable motion. Mr. A. J. Phillips says that when his father took his claim and pitched his tent near the river about half a mile above the forks there was a cabin on the north side of the river below the forks in which three men lived who were regarded with a great deal of suspicion by the elder Phillips and his neighbors. They were known as Banner, Jim Burnett and Orsemus, but assumed other names at different times and places. Banner, who seemed to be the leader, tried on several occasions to get Mr. Phillips to go hunting or fishing with him, but Phillips was suspicious and would not have anything to do with him.
On one occasion a man came to Phillips' place and wanted to stay over night with him. Said that he had stopped at the cabin occupied by the three men at the forks of the river and asked them to set him across the river in a boat they kept for that purpose, but the men insisted that he should s'ny over night with them and urged him to stay so strenuously that he became suspicious of them. He noticed that they talked to each other aside in a low voice and his suspicions being aroused, he became very discreet. He finally told them that he thought that he had better accept their hospitality and remain with them until morning, and after conversing with the men for a time he strolled out to the river, and along its banks and when out of sight of the cabin stepped into the water and waded across and made his way to Phillips' tent. Phillips told him that he thought if he had staid over night at the cabin he never would have gob any farther. The three men finding themselves objects of distrust among the settlers suddenly disappeared. Some time afterwards the Phillips boys were fishing near the forks, and discovered bones sticking out of the river bank, where the high water had caused the bank to cave in and on investigation the bones proved to be human bones, and the settlers believed that they were the bones of some unfortunate wayfarer whom the occupants of the cabin had made way with. Some time after the disappearance of the three men from this locality, they were heard from as living on the Fever river near Galena under different names, and they were objects of distrust there also. A citizen of Galena disappeared and could not be found and his friends for some reason believed that the three men had something to do with his disappearance, and thought of having them arrested. The men in some way learned of the suspicion, and of their contemplated arrest and again decamped, and later the body of the missing man was found buried near their cabin.
Mr. Phillips says at the time of their arrival in the valley there was a large Indian village just below the present site of the sawmill at Hurstville, and he remembers that the Indians buried their dead on the sand ridge where the village of Hurstville is now located. He says he recalls that there was some large elm trees stood there with large roots above the ground, and that in some cases two or more Indians were placed between the roots with body reclining against the tree and pens built about them to protect the bodies from wild animals. He said that the Indians explained that during the smallpox epidemic, the people died so fast that they could not be properly buried. He mentions one Indian that his father sometimes employed to spear fish for him, who said that after their terrible experience with smallpox, he had made up his mind never to live with the Indians any more.
William Phillips built the first saw mill in this locality on Mill creek, nearly 2 miles east of the village. He selected a place on the creek where there was a rock bottom, and a rocky bluff on the east side and heavy body of timber on west side, thinking the roots of the trees would protect the dam on that side. The mill when completed done a lively business for a time, as there was a big demand for lumber, but after a time rainy weather set in, and one day a neighbor who was fishing below the dam, noticed muddy water coming out of a small hole that he thought must be a craw-fish hole. Later in the evening he again noticed the muddy water coming out of the same place, and then thought it must be a muskrat hole. The rain continued to fall and next morning it was discovered that the water had undermined the trees on the west side and upset them and made a new channel, and the dam that had cost so much hard labor bad to be replaced.
Mr. Phillips had a very unpleasant experience with the outlaws that infested the country in its first settlement. On one occasion three men came to his cabin and requested dinners and horse feed, and as Mr. Phillips was noted for his hospitality, no one was ever turned away from his door cold or hungry. When the wants of these men had been supplied they insisted on paying for their entertainment, and tendered a $50 bill which Phillips examined, and knowing that the bank was good he changed the bill. When the men had left, one of Phillips girls spoke about one of the men having but one thumb, and this fact excited the suspicion of Mr. Phillips as at that time a man known as ''One Thumbed Thompson" bore a bad reputation in the county. Phillips took the bill up to Mr. Goodenow's, and showed it to Goodenow and others, and all of those who saw it pronounced it a spurious bill. Phillips then went to Dubuque with it and had his suspicions confirmed. He never got a cent out of the transaction.
At another time he was told by a friend that he had heard W. W. Brown of Bellevue tell a couple of men that a man by name of Phillips living near the forks of the Maquobeta, had a good team of horses that were worth looking after Phillips had a pasture fenced off for his horses with a very strong rail fence, into which he turned his horses at night. The horses were high mettled and were pretty hard to catch when running in the pasture. Phillips usually had to coax them into the log stable in order to catch them. Some time after he received this warning that his horses were coveted by others. He awoke one night and heard the horses running in the pasture which was near the cabin. He went out and hallowed, thinking if anyone was trying to steal his horses he would frighten them away. The next morning he found that one of the horses was outside of the pasture and one inside. He went entirely around the enclosure and found the fence up all right and the gate shut and fastened with a pin. When he wanted to use the team he missed one of the bridles which could not be found and the mystery deepened.
That fall while picking plums in a thicket near the forks, the boys found the bridle in the plum thicket, the reins tied to a plum tree. Phillips when told of the finding of the bridle, remarked that the mystery was cleared up. He thought that parties had come to steal the horses, and had succeeded in catching one, and tied him up with the bridle and went after the other, and while trying to catch the other horse, the one tied up slipped the bridle over his head, a trick that he was an adept at, and made his escape.
William Phillips' family consisted of himself and wife, four girls and three boys. In 1846 he sold his claim near the forks of the river to David Sears, and removed to a quarter section of land that he owned or claimed west of the village and now known as the Lenker farm.
In 1854 he sold this farm and removed to Des Moines where he resided until 1857, when he died from a dose of strichnine taken by mistake for quinine. One of the girls married Alfred Clark in 1842, and in 1850 they went to California. Another, Nancy, married Joel Higgins, the well known fine horse breeder of Higginsport, Dubuque county. A. J., as above stated, days in Jas in Maquoketa and is full of interesting reminiscences of early still resideckson county.
A. H. Wilson, who is now past ninety, tells an amusing experience that he and Vobsurg had with two the Phillips girls in 1839 or 1840. There was to be a dance at Shade Burlesons, and while there was quite a number of young men in the valley, young ladies were almost as scarce as hens teeth. It was known that there were two girls at Phillips' place, but they were young and shy, and had never appeared at any of the gatherings in the neighborhood. Wilson and Vosburg conceived the idea of bringing the girls out. They procured a buckboard the evening of the dance and drove out to Phillips' place which was about six or seven miles from Burleson's cabin. When the young men arrived at Phillips' cabin, Wilson acted as spokesman and informed Mrs. Phillips that there was to be a dance at Burleson's, and asked her permission to take the girls to the dance. Mrs. Phillips told him that the girls could go and that she would help them to get ready. The girls, however, had a different view of the matter. When they heard their mother tell Wilson they could go with him to the dance, they sprang out through the open door and ran like frightened rabbits. Wilson leaped out in pursuit and chased them around the house, but without making headway. He said when he turned a corner of the cabin he would catch a glimpse of the girls going around the next corner. He finally ordered Vosburg to stand at one corner and head them off, and by that means run them back into the house, where the mother took a hand in, and gave the girls to understand that she had promised that they would go with the boys to the dance, and they had to go. She helped them to array themselves in their best clothes, and the four young people boarded the buckboard and set out for Burleson's. Mr. Wilson says he could not by any manner of means induce his partner to utter one word on the journey, and she would neither dance nor talk after their arrival at the dance. Burleson had no little sport at Wilson's expense, twitting him with having a partner who would neither dance nor converse with him, until in sheer desperation, Wilson dragged the girl out on the floor and led her by main strength through the figure. After the ice was thus broken, Mr. Wilson found that he had a very agreeable, pleasant partner. She explained her behavior by saying that she was so frightened at the thoughts of trying to dance the figures as the others were doing that it really made her sick and miserable. The cabins in those days were far apart, indeed, and the young people had few opportunities for social gatherings, and for making acquaintances.
Source: Annals of Jackson County, Iowa, Jackson County Historical Society, Maquoketa, Iowa, Issues 1-7, 1905; Pgs. 12-15
NOTES:
(1) A son of the above William Phillips is:
Alexander J. Phillips, who married Lucy Cummings, October 15, 1867, Jackson Co. Iowa, by E.P. Whitney, minister.
(2) The above is an interesting narrative written when William Phillips' son, Alexander J., was still alive and living in same said county. However, as with any such narrative, all information should be verified with other sources before accepting it as factual.
