Add'l Info.
EZEKIEL T. PHILLIPS, one of the representative farmers of Falls county, Texas, is a son of Robert and Mesene (Henderson) Phillips, natives of Georgia. Robert Phillips was born in 1801, and died in 1877. By occupation he was a farmer. His wife was born in 1806, and died in 1873. They were married in 1825, and their union was blessed by the birth of eleven children, as follows: Robert, a merchant in Alabama; Ezekiel T., the subject of our sketch; William, a member of Lowry’s regiment, was killed during the war; John, of Falls county, Texas; Minerva, deceased, wife of Joseph Greer; Elizabeth, wife of Alexander Cobb; Alonzo, who died in 1877; Nancy Jane, deceased, wife of Henry Hill; Sarah, deceased, wife of Rufus Henry; Cicero, of Wise county, Texas; and Susan, deceased, wife of Lemuel Farrar.
Of the grandparents of Mr. Phillips, we record that Robert Phillips, his grandfather, was a native of South Carolina, and by trade a mechanic; that his grandmother, Mary (Russell)Phillips, was born in Scotland. His maternal grandparents, Robert and Abigail (Ratchford) Henderson, were natives of South Carolina. Grandfather Henderson was a farmer. Both the Hendersons and Ratchfords came to America, from Ireland, before the Revolutionary war. The Phillips family also originated in Ireland.
Ezekiel T. Phillips was born in Hall county, Georgia, in 1830, and remained with his parents, working on the farm, until he was twenty-two years of age. At that time he went to Mississippi, and in Pontotoc county was employed as overseer for four years. He then engaged in farming, on his own account, in Mississippi, remaining there till 1869, when he came to Texas. He located near his present home in Falls county, and in 1874 moved to the place where he now lives.
During the Civil war Mr. Phillips was among the first to go to the front. In 1861, he joined Company G, and after sixty days they reorganized, he being assigned to duty in Company E, Second Mississippi Cavalry. He served till the close of the war, and when news of the surrender reached him he was in Western Tennessee.
Mr. Phillips was married in 1854, to Miss Jane Wade, a daughter of John and Emily (Banks) Wade, natives of Alabama. Ten children have been born to them, namely: Susan,wife of George Hale, of Falls county; Robert, who was killed by a gunshot; John, at home; Anna, wife of Andrew Glass, of Falls county; Willie, a teacher; Parks, wife of Walter Glass; Georgia, wife of Felix Glass; Emma and Minnie, at home; and the second-born died in infancy.
From a poor young man Mr. Phillips has worked his way up, his present prosperity being the result of his own industry and good management. When he began life for himself at the age of twenty, all his capital was invested in a horse. At the time he came to Texas, he had about $1,500. At this writing he has 750 acres of fine land, including what he has distributed among his family, and has fifty or sixty head of stock. Politically, he is independent. He is a Master Mason, and he and his family worship with the Methodist Episcopal Church.
Source: Memorial and Biographical History of McLennan, Falls, Bell and Coryell Counties, Texas, Volume II, published by Lewis Publishing Company, Chicago, 1893; Pgs. 563-564
