My Genealogy Hound

A. J. Phillips, a fine mechanic, and one of Johnson County’s successful farmers, was born in West Virginia in 1830, moved to Whiteside County, Ill., in 1854, and in 1865 came to his present abode in Missouri. He was brought up on a farm, and learned the carpentering trade when eighteen years of age. He has acquired his education to a great extent by reading while attending to his daily duties. He began life for himself a poor man, and what he now possesses is the result of his own labor and practical business knowledge. He has a well-improved farm of more than 500 acres. He was married in the spring of 1854 to Miss Martha E. Rowan, daughter of Frank Rowan, an early settler in Randolph County, W. Va., and a native of Baltimore, Md. To Mr. and Mrs. Phillips eleven children have been born: Elizabeth, Mary, Francesson M., William H., Randolph, Benjamin, Edward J., George, Emma (deceased), Thomas and Lewis. Mrs. Phillips is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and Mr. Phillips is a professed Christian. He is also a stanch Republican, and served as constable of Whiteside County, Ill., for four years. He has never sought office, but has frequently been offered and requested to accept various offices at different times. He was the eighth of nine children of Benjamin and Phoebe (Walker) Phillips, natives of Randolph and Pendleton Counties, respectively. Benjamin served for many years as justice of the peace, and was an old-time Whig, predicting twenty years before that the war was inevitable. He was a man of considerable erudition, and a son of Thomas Phillips.