Mrs. Mahala B. Phillips.
With four children, 28 grandchildren, 33 great-grandchildren and 12 great-great-grandchildren to mourn her death, Mrs. Mahala Butler Phillips, 96 years old; a descendant of one of the pioneer families of Western Pennsylvania, and one of the oldest residents of Allegheny county, died at the home of her daughter, Mrs. Mary A. Sutton, of No. 311 Elysian avenue, yesterday morning.
Mrs. Phillips was born at Maria Forge, Fayette county, December 15, 1813. She was the daughter of John Butler. Her ancestors fought in the Revolutionary war, one of them having been a bodyguard of General Lafayette. The old mansion of the Butler family still stands on Butler street. She lived for a time at Mary furnace, but spent the larger part of her life at Carmichaels and California, Pa. For the past four years Mrs. Phillips had made her home with her daughter, Mrs. Sutton, and her granddaughter, Mrs. Elmer Reed, in Elysian avenue. Her husband, George Phillips, died in 1896, at the age of 85.
Mrs. Phillips was the mother of five children, four of whom survive. They are: James W. Phillips of Gallatin, Tex., a soldier of the Civil War; Mrs. Mary Sutton and Mrs. William Howard, of Pittsburg; and Mrs. John R. Ware, of Coffeyville, Kan. She was a member of the First Methodist Episcopal church, of California, Pa.
Source: The Pittsburg Press, Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, Thursday Evening, January 20, 1910; Pg. 10, Column 4
