Phillips Family Stories, Fact, Myth and Legend

(If you are a member of the Phillips Clan or any of its offshoots, feel free to email me with any additions to this page)

The Phillips has many "family stories about our ancestory." Most of it, I believe is based in fact, but perhaps details have been lost over the years. If these stories do not sound plausible to you, please remember that they are, afterall, only stories. On the other hand, should you have proof that they are true, we would appreciate hearing from you. Also, we have a new addition to this page. Click here for "Can you speak Country and other Old Wives Tales"

John Phillips and the Salt Lick

This story has come to us from Ethan VanBuren Phillips as reported in a letter dated Aug. 14, 1956 to Mrs. Edd A. Diddle. A copy was mailed to Marion Lowry Phillips....(typos and misspellings as in original)"John and some of his neigbors made a trip several miles from their homes to a salt spring to boil the water to get salt. They had been at the spring for several days. The night before they planned to go home with their supply of salt, the Indians made a raid on them, killing all of the party but Phillips. He had two of his teeth shot out by the Indians that night. All that saved him was small dog of his. The dog would growl when he scented an Indian and would take a different course. Phillips followed the dog the entire night and at daybreak was several miles from the salt springs towards home."

(I have read this same story in a book on Daniel Boone. The note from the author about this story and others used by some Boone historians was that it did NOT happen to Boone, but was a true story which had been attributed to him. Could it be that this story is true for our John Phillips?)

JOHN HANCOCK'S GRANDDAUGHTER?

This is a story that I would really like to substantiate. If any of you have any information on this, I would love to hear from you.

The story says that Mary Stockton was the direct descendant of John Hancock, the signer of the Declaration of Independence. I have been told that John Hancock had no DIRECT descendants. She may have been a descendant of Richard Stockton, but we cannot confirm that either. Can anyone out there enlighten me?

WHY WERE JOHN, RACHEL, AND MARY STOCKTONS GRAVES MOVED?

I asked that question of the elder relatives in my own family and the answer came quickly...well, how would you like to be buried in a hog pen? It seems the Phillips land near Highway,KY has been sold over the years and in the 1960's was owned by someone that raised hogs for a living. He had set the pen up right next to the graves of John, Rachel, and Mary Phillips. My grandfather was indignant, but feeling that since the land belonged to someone else, there was no alternative but to have them exhumed and buried near their kin near Byrdstown, TN.

JOSEPH TOMPKINS- SON OF TECUMSEH

Samuel Phillips' wife, Elizabeth Tompkins was the daughter of Joseph and Mary Jenkins Tompkins. I had not heard this story in our line, but a "cousin" reports that their story was that he was the son of Tecumseh the Great Indian Warrior (my apologies to our Native American Cousins, but this was his title in the history books). In my own family the story was more like...

The Tompkins family founded the town of Tompkinsville, KY and settled in the area at the time of war between the natives and the white settlers. As was custom by the "Indians" in that time, they would "adopt" the son of an enemy to replace a son lost in battle. One of the Tompkins sons (unnamed in the story) and his sister had been kidnapped and raised in such a manner. He grew into a strong, brave and wise man that was called Tecumseh, because the name Tompkins was difficult in the Shawnee tongue. Tompkins, tompkinseh,tekinseh, tecumseh...

The story says that as a dark haired white man, this Tompkins fit into both societies and could "blend in" and that was why he was able to bring the Cherokee nations together and could still "rub elbows" with the white governors. The proof of the story, so it is said, is to look at the etchings of Tecumseh... he doesn't appear to have the characteristics of a Native American. I'll leave that decision up to you. What I find interesting about this story is that two branches of the family separated by four generations and hundreds of miles and years have stories based on the same person. And that Tecumseh was, in fact, adopted by his Indian father, along with his sister. Coincidence? You guess.

THE CHERRY TREE WASHINGTON DIDN'T CUT DOWN

Anna Mae Taylor Phillips was the wife of Marion Lowry Phillips. She was from a large family (10 children) in Ellington, KY (between the banks of the Cumberland River and what is now Dale Hollow Lake. Anna's grandfather Taylor and two of his slaves built the original church at Pleasant Hill near Ellington, KY, just before the Civil War. All the the church pews and panelling within the building were constructed out of the same enormous Wild Cherry tree which was growing on the Taylor land. While the original church does not exist at the present time, some of the original cherry paneling was made into a small side table which is still in our family. You see, paneling back then was about 1-1/2 inches thick and solid wood!

The current church is located near the old Pleasant Hill School site which Grandmother attended as a child. Their home was at the base of this huge hill overgrown in moss and ferns at the base of 80-100 ft. hardwood trees and large jagged rocks. The road at that time was dirt and did not meander around to the top of the hill as most roads do now, but went almost straight up. It was a sea of mud in the rain and passersby often chose to walk in the woods on either side to avoid the mess.

This was rattlesnack, water moccasin, and copperhead country, yet she and her brothers and sisters would walk to school barefoot, choosing to save their only pair of shoes from getting scuffed until they could arrive at the school.

(And our children think they have it rough with their namebrand athletic shoes and Mom and Dad toting them to school by car everyday!)

Nanny Susan Goff Phillips, Matchmaker Par Excellent

Nannie Susan Goff and Anna Mae Taylor, photo taken ca. 1909

Aunt Nanny Susan Goff lived just down the road from my grandmother, Anna Mae Taylor, "spitting" distance, you might even say, in Ellington, Kentucky. She was engaged to be married to Otis Phillips and Anna Taylor's (Grand Mother) best friend. Grand Daddy was delivering mail by mule. He stopped to deliver mail at Aunt Nanny's house where Grand Mother was visiting and crocheting. She dropped her crochet hook and Grand Daddy "just had to pick it up". Having been going with a young man for seven years, Annie was not interested in pursuing a relationship with this young man, but couldn't help herself. The attraction was too strong and just two weeks later they were married at his Aunt Lizzy and Uncle John Clark's home near Lilydale, TN; a marriage that lasted 46 years until Anna Mae Phillips passed away of a brain tumor on April 2, 1969.
Aunt Nannie's marriage didn't fare quite so well, as she and Otis Phillips divorced after several years of marriage. Uncle Otis later remarried and was killed in a train/car accident a number of years ago. Aunt Nannie died several years after the divorce and is buried at Pleasant Hill Cemetery near what had been Ellington, KY to the south of Burkesville, KY. This is that same church that Anna Taylor Phillips' ancestor had built high on the ridge overlooking the Cumberland River and where much of the Taylor and Norris families are buried. (The other Taylor family cemetery being at the base of Pleasant Hill on private property and in a poor state of upkeep.)

Phillips Cousins as Peacemakers

Cordell Hull, father of the United Nations and 1945 winner of the Nobel Peace prize was a Phillips "cousin". I'm not exactly sure how he connected to the family, but I believe his mother was a Riley and may have descended from our Rachel Phillips marriage to Isaac Riley. Nonetheless, Cordell attended school in a one room school house in Tennessee near Willow Grove with our William Thomas (Willie) Phillips.

Cordell was a few years older than he, and Willie both admired and envied him. Both men went on to become lawyers; however, Willie did not live long enough to see the cousin he grew up with become internationally famous. I think he would have loved it.

FURNITURE MAKING THE OLD FASHIONED WAY

Aunt Lizzie Clark, the daughter of Jessee Phillips and Rebecca Roe Phillips, married John Clark, whose brother was a doctor in Overton County, TN (a bridge there was named after the brother). A lot of people remember the beautiful home that she and Uncle John had, with its natural gas lighting throughout and beautiful carved furniture, but few people know that Aunt Lizzie was quite an artisan. Lizzie built a good portion of the furniture that was used in their house using, what else, a kitchen butcher knife and a hammer. The only thing left of the furniture, to my knowledge, is the pictures made of her proudly holding her kitchen knife and standing next to the ornately carved dressers, chifferobes, and tables she built herself. The knife, by the way, wasn't a little paring knife that would easily have carved the intricate designs, but was larger, more like what we now term a French Chefs knife. Those of you that do wood carving out there in cyberspace, try carving some good hard maple, cherry or oak in the various Victorian styles with a chefs knife; go ahead, I dare you.

Why DOES Someone Run for Political Office?

My grandfather, M.L. Phillips was a magistrate for Cumberland County, Kentucky in the early 1970s. For those of you unfamiliar with the style of government in the Commonwealth, the job is one similar in nature to a member of the Board of Supervisors. The Magistrates are responsible for the County's actions in their district, including roads, water and sewer, new building, refuse, etc.
Grand Daddy was a Republican by requirement, but really had no forthright political connections. (Since that part of the State was so overrun with Republicans, one HAD to register as one in order to be able to vote--there was NO ONE on the Democratic ticket. These one-side political rosters are also common in the State of Kentucky, with some counties being Republican and others being Democratic.) When he decided to run for the office, something that he had never done before, he made is decision based on one question: "WHY WOULD A MAN WANT A JOB THAT ONLY PAID 56 DOLLARS A YEAR AND WANT TO KEEP IT 27 YEARS?" He was soon to find out.
Election Day came and Grand Daddy was the hands-down winner. He won, he said, because the incumbant was discovered by voters to be "buying" votes for whiskey in a dry territory. (Even in 1998, alcohol sales are illegal in much of the State of Kentucky.)
After his victory, he said he found out why the incumbent wanted the job... In researching the situation of the county road system in his district, he found that the paved road went for several miles, turned to gravel in front of the Democrats house, then began again for several more, turning again to gravel at the next Democrats house, and so on. That was the first task he set about to fix!

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These stories are family lore/legend only. No comparison is made to any other person, otherwise real or imaginary nor is intended. The stories may be pure fantasy, fiction, or may have a basis in fact. It is left to the reader to discern based on a thorough history and documentation of facts.

© 1997 l.k.thomas@usa.net

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