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Below is a family biography included in Book of Biographies: Biographical Sketches of Leading Citizens, Cortland County, New York published by Biographical Publishing Company in 1898.  These biographies are valuable for genealogy research in discovering missing ancestors or filling in the details of a family tree. Family biographies often include far more information than can be found in a census record or obituary.  Details will vary with each biography but will often include the date and place of birth, parent names including mothers' maiden name, name of wife including maiden name, her parents' names, name of children (including spouses if married), former places of residence, occupation details, military service, church and social organization affiliations, and more.  There are often ancestry details included that cannot be found in any other type of genealogical record.

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HON. GEORGE W. PHILLIPS, one of Cortland County’s most able and at the same time most successful citizens, whose portrait*, executed from a very recent photograph, appears on the opposite page, has led a life that has been filled to the extreme with important affairs. He has been in turn a teacher, a farmer, a business man and a financier. During the period of the war, when loyal states were straining every nerve and muscle to put down the Rebellion, Mr. Phillips held the office of supervisor of his township, a position which called for the greatest amount of capability and business foresight as well as integrity. He is at the present writing the honored president of the Homer National Bank, and a citizen whose interests extend far into the life and prosperity of his town.

Mr. Phillips was born December 18, 1823, on a farm in Onondaga County, N. Y. He is a son of Waterman Phillips, who was a native of Preston, Conn., and who with his wife, Rachel (Kinney) Phillips, born in Windham, Conn., came into Cortland County previous to the year 1800. Waterman Phillips first settled near the point now named Blodgett’s Mills. From there he later moved to the town of Solon, and then to Onondaga, in the county of the same name. He remained there for twenty-five years, returning in 1836 to Cortland County, and settling in the town of Scott. For sixteen years he continued in this township, removing to Homer in 1852, where he lived until his death in 1861 at the age of eighty-three. His faithful wife had passed away at an earlier date, being fifty-two years old at the time of her death. They reared a family of ten children, of whom George W., the subject of this narration, was the youngest. Mr. Phillips, Sr., was a Whig and a Republican, and reared his family in accordance with the rules of the Methodist Episcopal Church.

The subject of our sketch attended the public schools, and took a finishing course at the Cortland Academy. For seven seasons he successfully and creditably filled the position of a school-teacher, and at the age of twenty-one was elected superintendent of schools for the town of Scott, serving in that capacity for two years. This selection was an unusual honor for a man so young in years, but his most excellent work as a teacher had demonstrated his fitness for the place, and the way in which he conducted himself in office and the splendid results he brought about more than confirmed the judgment of his townsmen. A little later Mr. Phillips engaged in farming, which he followed until 1850. He then came to Homer, and entered upon a mercantile life, in which he continued for thirty-five years. Careful economy, shrewd management and fair dealing made this business grow and prosper, so that it carried its director and master far along on the road to success. Mr. Phillips’ wife was before her marriage to him a Miss Abby Rhodes, daughter of Otis Rhodes. He wedded her in July, 1850, in Scott township, and one child, Ellen F., came to bless their union. The beloved wife entered into rest April 6, 1896, aged seventy-two years.

During the earlier part of his life, Mr. Phillips was a Whig. At the inception of the Republican party, he became an ardent advocate of its principles, and signed the first call for its organization in Cortland County. In 1861 he was elected to the office of supervisor of the town of Homer, Cortland County, and was retained in that office for five successive years during the whole Civil War. In his first re-election in 1862, his name was on both the Republican and Democratic tickets, so he was accorded the unique honor of a unanimous election. The extra importance of that office during the years of strife came from the fact that on the shoulders of the supervisors fell the real duty of providing Cortland County’s quota of men and munitions of war, together with the handling of immense sums of money. Mr. Phillips’ task was onerous, as it required hard work on several committees of the county board of supervisors, for he was chairman of the board committee of military affairs, and was the only member who held the office during the entire existence of that committee. In 1867, after being out of the board a single year, he was again elected and served four more successive years. In 1873 and 1874, Mr. Phillips was further honored and endorsed; he was elected a member of the State Legislature, and then given a re-election, the first instance of a re-election in his district for forty years. In Albany, while not an officious or obtrusive legislator, Mr. Phillips faithfully and intelligently performed his duties, and left such a record that made his constituents feel that they had indeed sent the right man to represent them. He was ever ready to vindicate what he believed was right, and was a strongly felt force against what seemed wrong. He was an exceedingly industrious member, and his influence was always on the side of an economical and honest expenditure of the people’s money. In the committees during the last sessions, he was chairman of the committee on engrossed bills, and was a member of the committee on education, and the committee of two-third’s and three-fourth’s bills.

Mr. Phillips was a prime mover in the organization of the Homer National Bank in 1884. He was elected its first president, and has held that office ever since. He was also instrumental in organizing the First National Bank of Homer. He has always taken a deep interest in educational matters, and for several years was a trustee of the Cortland Academy, an institution which was considered at one time as one of the first in the Empire State. He was a trustee of Homer Academy and Union School nine years, and was a member of the building committee that erected the academy building that was destroyed by fire in January, 1893. He has held several offices and minor trusts, including one of trustee of the village corporation of Homer. In all affairs, be they of a business, a social, or a political nature, he is alert and wide-awake. He has made his life of use to himself and to all who have come within the range of its influence. He is to-day a stirring and vigorous gentleman, though many years have passed over his head, and is such a one whom the people of Central New York are glad to esteem and honor.

*A portrait was included in the original printed volume.

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This family biography is one of numerous biographies included in Book of Biographies: Biographical Sketches of Leading Citizens, Cortland County, New York published in 1898. 

View additional Cortland County, New York family biographies here: Cortland County, New York Biographies

View a map of 1897 Cortland County, New York here: Cortland County, New York Map

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