- ALLEN F. PHILLIPS lives in Janesville, Rock county, and has
a beautiful and commodious
- residence at No. 227 South Main street. He has been a resident
of the city some eighteen years, and in that time has commanded
wide recognition as a capable and honorable business man and
an upright citizen, whose word is as good as his bond.
- Mr. PHILLIPS was born in Woodstock, Conn., Aug. 18, 1835,
and his parents, Addison and
- Mary (WALDO) PHILLIPS, were both natives of that State. They
had two children: Allen F., our subject; and a daughter, Anna,
who died when about twelve years old. The father in early life
was a farmer, but in his later years was a merchant in the city
of New York. In 1837, in company with his wife and son, he came
West to Rockford, Ill., and there took up a half section of government
land. In March, 1839, he accidentally shot himself, while going
to the timber for a load of rails. His wife lived till the fall
of 1898, dying at the advanced age of eighty-six. She was a Congregationalist,
and a lady of many marked excellencies of mind and heart. Wheeler
PHILLIPS, paternal grandfather of the subject of this article,
was born in Connecticut, and came of English stock. He was a
prominent man in his day, being town clerk for many years, and
long time judge of probate. He died on his farm in the village
of West Woodstock, about seven miles from Gen. Putnam's wolf
den, at the age of eighty-three. He was twice married, and had
four sons, three by his first and one by his second wife. Francis
WALDO, the father of Mary WALDO, was also a native of Connecticut,
and of English descent. He was a farmer, and lived to celebrate
his seventy-second birthday. He was the father of five children.
- Allen F. PHILLIPS was not quite four years old when his father's
death occurred. The widow
- and her children were received into the home of her husband's
father, and there Allen lived until the outbreak of the Civil
war called him to the front in 1861. He enlisted in the fall
of that year in Company A, 1st Connecticut Cavalry, and did gallant
service in the cause of the Union for three years, his regiment
being attached to the Army of the Potomac. He led a stirring
life, and passed through many hot engagements, being under the
command of Schenck, Milroy, Sigel, Pope, and Burnside. After
the battle of Falmouth he returned to Stafford Court House, where
the regiment lay encamped for a number of weeks, and was then
ordered to report to Gen. Schenck, at Baltimore. Mr. PHILLIPS
was detailed for special duty in that city, and was there when
the battle of Antietam was fought. With forty men he conducted
five thousand rebel prisoners through the city to Fort McHenry.
Mr. PHILLIPS at that time was second lieutenant. A day or two
later his troops were ordered to Harper's Ferry, and were the
first to cross on the new pontoon bridge, that they might help
protect the Capital against the advance of Gen. Lee. Of the forty-nine
men he led across the twenty-four were afterward captured, among
them Major Charles Farnsworth, who never returned, but died in
Charleston, S.C., while a prisoner. This was about July 5, and
the regiment lay at Harper's Ferry until the following January
or February, mainly engaged in picket duty. Our subject was in
the battle of McDowell under Gen. Fremont in his campaign for
the expulsion of Gen. Jackson from the Shenandoah valley. In
the second battle of Bull Run he was under the command of Gen.
Pope. He was in many of the most important and bloodiest combats
of the war, and to-day he marvels at his escape unscathed. He
bore a soldier's part in the battles of the Wilderness, Spottsylvania,
Ashland, Kearneysville, Cedar Creek, in front of Richmond, in
the Shenandoah Valley, and at Winchester, and was in an almost
continuous state of action during all of his three years' service.
He entered the army as a private, was promoted to second lieutenant,
and made a record of which any man might well be proud.
- After his discharge from the government service, Mr. PHILLIPS
went to New York City, and
- engaged in the flour and feed business, which he followed
until 1872. That year he sold out, and coming West located in
Rockford, Ill., where he spent the next ten years. In 1882 he
removed his business to Janesville, in which city he has made
his home, since that time. From the time he came West he has
bought and sold stock, and in the pursuit of that calling he
has made a host of friends.
- Mr. PHILLIPS was married to Miss Emma CHILDS, a daughter
of Elias and Nancy (PERRIN)
- CHILDS, Nov. 13, 1861. Mrs. PHILLIPS is a lady of character
and intelligence much above the ordinary, possessing those qualities
of mind and heart that command and retain warm friendship, and
has ably assisted her husband in his life labors. She is the
mother of two children, Herbert A. and Myrtis A. Herbert has
charge of the sheep and lamb department of the Hammond Packing
Co., at Hammond, Ind.; Myrtis married John SOULMAN, and lives
in Janesville, he being engaged in the wholesale tobacco business;
they have three children, Ralph, Ruth and Helen. Mrs. PHILLIPS
belongs to the Congregational Church. He is a Republican.
-
- Taken from "Commemorative Biographical Record of
the Counties of Rock, Green, Grant, Iowa and Lafayette Wisconsin"
(c)1901, pp. 308-310.
-
- Courtesy of Carol
|