AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF FRANK N. PHELPS, SR. [1857-l945]
COMPILED BY GORDON MERRITT
Frank N. Phelps, Sr., 1857-1945
John Phelps, 1796-1874 Sarah
Rogan Carlin Phelps, 1797-1879
My Grandfather,
John Phelps [1796-1874], was born in Bedford County, Virginia. When he was about fifteen years old his
father moved to [Wilson County] Tennessee and opened a farm in heavily timbered
country. Soon afterward the War of 1812
began and as soon as Grandfather was eighteen, he volunteered and persuaded his
eldest brother, Henry, to enter the service also. In a short time, grandfather was obliged to
return home on account of an injury but as soon as he recovered, he set out to
return to the army, going from Tennessee to New Orleans through a wilderness
and a savage country, swimming rivers and steering his course by the moss on
the trees, going alone because his companions became discouraged by the
hardships and turned back. Grandfather
never let difficulties daunt him when he had fully decided upon his course. After about thirty days travel, he arrived in
New Orleans in time to fight the last battle of the war side by side with his
brother. After the war was ended, he
returned to Tennessee and in 1816, at the age of twenty, he married Sarah Rogan
Carlin. They had three children, Sarah
[Louise], James Carlin Turner, and Napoleon [B]. Grandfather farmed for a few years after his
marriage and then built a keelboat and went into trade on the river --
freighting farm products, especially tobacco to St. Louis and soon was
operating several boats. The first
steamer that ever ascended the river above Nashville was chartered and
freighted by him.
In 1834
Grandfather with his young brothers, Benjamin, and George Washington Phelps,
began opening the farm in Ogle County, Illinois, where he spent the remainder
of his days. They built a big log house,
the first house built in that section, and the family moved there the next
spring, Grandfathers two brothers remained with him. It was a rich and fertile land. Grandfather was ambitious and industrious. He
was a man of great determination and perseverance and the greater the
difficulties the more determined he was to succeed.
George Washington “Wash” Phelps, brother, and neighbor of John Phelps. 1812-1892
He opened the first wagon road between Galena and Chicago, as nearly as possible a direct route, and laid out the county of Ogle and the town of Oregon about 100 miles west of Chicago. He established a ferry at Oregon to cross Rock River.
The valley of
Rock River began to fill up with settlers, mostly farmers from the New England
States and Maryland. Among the first of
those from Maryland was Captain Nathaniel Swingley and his family. Captain Swingley located his farm near Mt.
Morris, five miles from Oregon, then later be bought about a section of land
which included Brodie's Grove, named after the famous outlaw band of horse
thieves.
This grove was
heavily timbered and several years after the outlaw band had been wiped out, a
storm blew down one of the big trees. It
proved to be hollow and in it they found nineteen saddles hidden there, that
had been stolen from horses in that section.
James C.T.
Phelps, my father, worked on his father’s farm and helped in all his father’s
business. School facilities were limited
and Tom Ford,
Tom Ford,
Governor, Judge, historian, friend of John Phelps
1800-1850
afterward
governor of Illinois made his home with Grandfather for a time and taught my
father at night. He persuaded
Grandfather to send James to a college in central Illinois. My Aunt Sarah had an excellent education,
attending a convent school. The
Catholic schools were superior to all others in the West at that time.
Grandfather
Phelps raise more produce on his farm that he could find a market for nearer
than Chicago, so he built two boats at Oregon, loaded them with farm produce
from his own farm and shipped it to St. Louis.
My father was in charge and finally succeeded in marketing it in St.
Louis at a fair price, but it had been such a long and expensive trip there was
a heavy loss on the venture.
However, in 1844
Grandfather tried it again. He built
another boat and loaded it with produce from his farm. My father took charge and landed it safely in
St. Louis. He sold at good prices and
with the proceeds bought a stock of groceries in preparatory to commencing
business in the fall, under the name of "John Phelps and Son." Grandfather went to New York that fall and
purchases a stock of goods. When he
returned, he decided to sell his interest to Wesley Johnston, so the firm of
"Phelps and Johnston" was formed and continued in the mercantile
business under that name for thirty years.
Grandfather was
their agent and bought their goods in New York and elsewhere for many years --
assisting them in every way he could.
In 1847 my father
married Ann Elizabeth Swingley, Captain Nathaniel Swingley’s oldest
daughter. The next year Sarah Phelps
married my father’s partner, Wesley Johnston.
In 1849 my father
shipped a stock of goods down the Mississippi and up the Missouri River to
Weston, Missouri, then an outfitting point for those crossing the plains in the
gold rush and also a business point for the people at Fort Leavenworth. He opened a store but soon found that in
buying his stock of goods he had had in mind more the goods used in Illinois
than the needs of the plainsmen. The
plainsmen used a different and heavier harness for their teams and the clothing
needed was rougher and more substantial.
The manners and customs of the people were quite different from northern
Illinois and my father did not like it.
It was a general
custom of the merchants there to have a barrel of whiskey in the back room and
to let the customers go back and help themselves to as much as they wanted,
free of charge. My father used to tell
of a customer who had come into the store one day, a complete stranger, and had
walked up to him and said "Tobacco."
My father got him some, "Pipe", he said, and my father got him
a pipe, "Matches", was the next order and when the man took the matches,
he filled the pipe with tobacco, lighted it and walked out with no payment for
anything and not even a word of thanks.
This customer was an exceptional case, but the place did not suit my
father.
Aunt Rill, just a
young girl then, went with my father and mother to Weston. My sister Ella was a
baby, and my mother felt the need of her sister for company. Aunt Rill thot Weston was a terrible
place. Grandfather’s brother, Tom Phelps,
lived near Weston and had a big plantation and raised a lot of tobacco and had
many slaves. My father and mother used
to visit him, but my father did not like the idea of slaves -- and was more and
more discontented. About the middle of
the first winter a fire occurred that damaged the stock of goods badly. The boat on which the goods had been shipped
to Weston had gone up the Missouri River and did not return till the following
spring. When my father heard that the
boat was returning, he made up his mind to ship his goods back to Illinois and
the Captain waited over a short time till the goods could be packed and put on
board. Father then took his goods to
Peru, Illinois and opened a store there.
Grandfather
enjoyed traveling and went to Texas. He
like the climate and country so well he thought of making it his home -- and
selected Austin as a good location for a Phelps and Johnston store. He went to New York and bought a stock of
goods and sent for his family.
Grandmother, Uncle Napoleon, and his wife, and George Washington Phelps
and his wife started and went by steamboat to New Orleans. Travel was very slow in those days and after
many weeks had passed Grandfather had become very anxious, he heard that
Grandmother, my Uncle Napoleon, and George Washington Phelps wife had been very
sick with yellow fever at New Orleans but were thought to be improving. Weeks later my Grandmother and G. W. Phelps
arrived in Austin bringing the sad news of the death of Napoleon and G.W.
Phelps wife. My Uncle Napoleon died the
tenth of December 1857, the day I was born.
State Gazette, Nov. 7, 1857
So much grief in
a strange land made Grandmother long for the friends and home in Illinois so
two years later they returned. They
drove over land in a traveling carriage and with a baggage wagon -- a distance
of 1400 miles and were 42 1/2 days on the road.
A day’s journey was about 30 miles.
The store in Austin was continued till 1860.
When I was born
my father was in charge of their store at Polo, Illinois and he remained there
till I was five or six years old. Then
he closed out the store in Polo and moved his family to St. Paul, opening a
Phelps and Johnston Store there and taking several of his clerks with him. I can remember leaving Polo late in the
evening. It was cold and I was wrapped
in my mother’s big brioche shawl. John
Shaffer, one of my father’s clerks, carried me.
It was my first sight of a train and its big fiery eye made a deep
impression. We went by train to Dubuque,
Iowa where we took a steamboat -- the "War Eagle" I think was the
name. There were six of us children --
Ella, Urilla, Charlie, Frank, Effie, and Ada -- to list them in order.
One of the clerks at the Phelps and Johnston general merchadise store at Polo was a sixteen year old boy, John Mason Spicer, who was sent to work at their store at St. Paul. He said, “1860. The State was two years old, St. Paul was a triving village with Bridge Square, the center of it teeming with life. Indians in blankets congregated in great numbers, squaws and papooses seated on the wooden sidewalks. Wooden carts drawn by oxen came and went, one or two hourse drawn conveyances were to be seen. His work at a clerk in a general merchandise store was much the same as in Illinois, but conditions in this new settlement made it varied and interesting. He made friends easily and soon had a wide acquaintance among people who came to the store and the young men who boarded at the Merchants Hotel.” [Round Robin of Kandiyohi County: Centennial Karl Thurn, Helen Thurn, 1958. Page 222.]
1858 Steam Engine
War Eagle Steamboat,that travelled to St. Paul, built 1854 – destroyed by fire 1870.
My father lived in St. Paul for about five years. The Phelps and Johnston stores were general dry goods stores handling boots, shoes, dry goods, hardware and a little of everything. In St. Paul, the big general market was on the road between our home and the store, and my father often took me with him, stopped at the market and bought supplies for the home and had me take them back. There was a big Indian Reservation back across the river from St. Paul and the Indians came to St. Paul to trade. At the market one morning we saw a squaw with a big box of blueberries and huckleberries. We stood watching her measure them for a customer. The squaw worked so swiftly, filling and emptying her measure, that the customer noted it and discovered the squaw had covered the bottom of her measure with molasses and so was giving very short measure. That little incident stuck in my memory.
My father’s store was just at the end of what was called "The Long Bridge" crossing the Mississippi River -- so the Indians coming to St. Paul came to his store first. It was quite a large store for the time,
1867 St. Paul
employing seven or eight clerks. My father secured the bulk of the Indian trade through a little incident. In dealing with the Indians little talking was done -- mostly signs. They came into the store, went along past the shelves, and when they saw what they wanted, they pointed. One day one of the Chiefs came in and was buying a bolt of sheeting. My father began measuring it off and when he finished measuring, he held up both hands to signify another ten, etc. When he showed the Indian how many tens there were the Indian shook his head saying, "white man cheat Indian." My father smiled and made signs he would measure it again. The Indian went to a bin of nails and got a handful of nails and for every yard my father measured off the Indian put down a nail. When he got through measuring the Indian counted the nails and said to my father, "Honest white man." From that time my father had the bulk of the Indian trade and it amounted to quite considerable. I remember there were two Indian chiefs who often came to the store. "Hole in the Day" and "Other Day" were their names.
John Otherday,
Wahepton Sioux Chief; Hole-in-the-Day, Ojibwe Chief
Once a year the
Indian and half-breed trappers from the Red River Country would bring in their
furs to sell. St. Paul was a great fur
market. They usually came in all at once
in a great caravan -- about a mile long -- with every conceivable kind of rig to
carry furs -- two wheeled carts with big willow crates that held probably a ton
of furs with the Indians riding on top the furs with their squaws and papooses
-- wagons with yokes of oxen or teams of horses, and single horses or oxen with
long poles like shafts and the furs lashed to the poles. It was one of the great sights of St. Paul
when they came in. Besides furs they brought
quantities of maple sugar. All this was
taken to the trading post much of it exchanged for goods the Indians wanted but
also a good deal of money was paid to them and my father’s store profited
greatly.
Red River Carts delivering furs on the streets
of St. Paul.
The Civil War was
being fought at this time but about it I was too small to feel concerned. When the war ended the returning soldiers
began coming back in Companies. When the
soldiers of that State returned there was a great celebration. A great banquet was given in the Capitol grounds
and I peered through the iron fence enclosing the grounds and saw the soldiers
march in and stack their arms in great rows.
The playing of the bands and the cheering made it very thrilling to me. I was in school the day the calvary
returned. They brought the horses back,
great numbers of them. One man would be
in charge of a squad of about a hundred horses all tied together by their
bridles. These horses, wearing their
saddles and bridles were taken to a kind of public auction. They had been the finest horses attainable
but now were a pitiful sight, many of them walking skeletons. They sold from $.50 up and often a horse
bought at auction died before its owner got it to his home. I wanted one of these horses. I felt sure I could feed it and bring it back
to be a fine horse again and such bargains!
First State Capitol at St.
Paul, Minnesota
I pleaded with my father but though he was very indulgent he did not consent. In my seat at school, I could hear horses passing, being taken to auction and I crept to the window again and again till the teacher stood me up on the platform in front of the school to punish me for my disobedience.
My mother's
sister, Mrs. Urilla Clark, came to visit us and brought her two children, Frank,
and Lida [1860-1945]. Their home was in
Chicago, but Aunt Rill's husband had died, and they were staying for a time at
her fathers, Grandfather Swingley's.
When they returned from their visit to us Grandfather Swingley asked
Frank Clark what he thought of his Uncle James -- "Why Grandpa, Uncle
James is the poorest man you ever saw - he hasn't a dog, or cat, or a chicken,
not even a stockyard." Frank was a
year younger than I and that was his way of measuring wealth.
Francis H. Clark 1858-1936 Urilla Swingley Clark 1832-1921
One morning I was
out in our side yard sawing wood. My
father had bought me a red saw buck and buck saw and I was assisting the man
cutting wood for my father. He let me
saw the small sticks. I was hard at work
when my mother came out on the front porch and called me. She told me "President Lincoln has been
assassinated." [He was assassinated
April 14, 1865]. I did not know what that meant but I realized it was something
terrible.
When we had lived
in St. Paul about three years Grandmother Swingley visited us and she persuaded
my parents to let me go home with her as she thought I looked very delicate,
and it would be much better for me to be on the farm.
The homes of the
grandparents were at that time about twenty-five miles apart as Grandfather Swingley
had left the farm near Mt. Morris and moved to the one at Brodie's Grove. For about two years I spent part of the time
at Grandfather Swingley’s and part at Grandfather Phelps spending one winter at
each grandparent’s and attending school.
Grandfather
Swingley had a fine big country home -- a two story frame house painted white
and built, as nearly as I can remember, in the shape of a cross. There were big shade trees and a well-kept
lawn, a very home like place. There were
big barns and granaries. He raised many
horses and cattle and had a big flock of sheep, at one time he had 3000.
There were fine
hogs -- big flocks of ducks, geese, turkeys, and chickens. There were many pigeons, and he kept a great
many hives of bees. We always had a big glass
dish of honey-in-the-comb in the center of the table and we children were
allowed to eat all the honey we wanted.
Grandfather raised much fruit of various kinds, too. Aunt Rill was there visiting that year with
Frank and Lida. Frank Swingley, a cousin
about my age, the son of my mother’s brother John, was living there because his
mother had died [Sophia C. Banks Swingley, died July 6, 1868, aged 30]. We were three Franks -- Frank Clark, Frank
Swingley, and Frank Phelps -- cousins and all about the same age. My Grandfather called us "White head,
Red head, and black head" as Frank Clarks hair was white, Frank Swingley
red, and mine black. We were allowed to
do about as we pleased; to ride the horses and go out to the fields with the
men and amuse ourselves. I cannot
remember having done any work.
There was a large
creek running through Grandfather’s farm and below the barns it had formed a
big pond deep enough to swim horses.
There were fish in the pond and many pond lilies. We could swim there, or we were allowed to
take the horses down to the pond and swim them there, holding tight to the mane
so we wouldn't be floated off. Three
small boys had no difficulty in amusing themselves.
The winter I
spent at Grandfather Swingley was very cold and froze the water in one pond to
such a depth it closed most of the air holes.
The men cut holes in the ice so the cattle and horses could get water
and the fish almost, smothered under the ice, gathered at these holes. Frank Swingley and I found some of these
holes almost filled with fish so we hurried to the barn and got a scoop shovel
and shoveled as many of the fish as we could onto the ice before they could get
out of the ice-trap. We secured almost a half bushel of nice large fish.
Grandfather and
Grandmother Swingley were both of medium height and quite heavy set -- very
pleasant and good natured and great church people. We always had family prayers I remember. They took a great interest in us children and
took every means to make us have a fine time.
It was an ideal place for us children.
Grandfather always wrote with a quill pen -- writing a letter or two and
then the writing became something few could decipher. One day he sent me horse-back to Creston, two
miles away, to get the mail. He gave me
a note to the postmaster and general storekeeper, I knew it was for something
he wanted me to bring back, but he did not tell me just what it was. I took the note to the store and the man could
not read it -- everyone that came in was shown the note, but no one could make
it out. I waited for hours -- finally a
neighbor who had done business with Grandfather came in and read the note with
Eliza Sharer
Swingley 1809-1879 Capt. Nathaniel
Swingley 1807-1883
ease. It said he wanted a half dozen cigars. I started home, the cigars in my front coat
pocket and leaning over and trotting my horse to get home as soon as possible,
I found when I arrived that the cigars were crumbled to a powder, but
grandfather realized I had done the best I could for him.
Grandfather
Swingley had gone to California in '49 crossing the plains. His son, Uncle Upton, about fifteen years
old, went with him riding a pony all the way.
They located in the placer mines back of Sacramento and were moderately
successful at the mining. He sent some
of the gold nuggets he mined to the mint at San Francisco and had them minted
into gold dollars one for each grandchild.
I had mine many years but to my regret finally lost it. Uncle Upton had some of the gold he mined
made into a long gold chain which he gave to my mother.
Upton Swingley 1834-1919
Grandfather soon
decided there was more money to be made in selling supplies to the miners than
in mining for gold, so he opened a store and did a good business. He was there several years, and I often heard
them tell of their experiences. They
returned by way of Panama and the Nicaraguan Route travel by water was much
quicker and easier in those days than the over-land.
After staying
some time at Grandfather Swingley’s, Grandfather Phelps would either send for
me or someone going that way would take me to visit at Grandfather Phelps. He had built a new home not far from the log
house soon after we moved to St. Paul.
It was a large brick house, and he made the brick on his own farm. It was about a ten-room house with a big
attic over the entire house. This was
full of discarded furnishings and made a grand place for children to play. There were large cellars under the house for
fruit and for wine as Grandfather Phelps had a big vineyard and made a great
quantity of wine. He had beautiful
grounds surrounding the new home and took great pleasure in landscaping and
beautifying his place. He set out many
kinds of trees -- hard maples, pines, everything that would ornament it. He was not at that time farming. He put his time into tending his orchard and
his vineyard and keeping his grounds looking like a park. The farm was leased to tenants.
John Phelps home,
1861-3
Grandfather Phelps was a very tall and slender as straight as an Indian. He had a very prominent nose and was sometimes call "The Old Roman." He was very careful of his dress, wore a wig, had very deep-set eyes, the keenest looking eyes I ever saw, and he was very observant of men and things. He was very stern appearing and very particular on all points of integrity and honor, very fearless and gave the impression of a man no one would dare try to impose upon. He controlled his temper well, but we children never presumed upon his good nature. When he said to do a thing, we obeyed. Everyone, even my father, stood in awe of him.
Grandmother
Phelps was tall and rather plump. She
had large blue eyes and was a very fine-looking woman. She was extremely pleasant, very thoughtful,
and considerate in every way. I was
quite a favorite and I think she never thought of punishing any of us. We obeyed through love for her, there was no
fear of consequences.
My father’s
sister Sarah [1817-1889] and her husband, Wesley Johnston [1817-1893], were at
that time living at Grandfathers. They
had four children -- Oscar, Alice, Eva, and James. James, or Jim, the youngest, was a year older
than I and one of the best friends I ever had [1857-1926]. He was much larger and stronger and fought
many a battle in my behalf at the Mud Creek School which we attended. Jim and I worked together. Grandfather did not believe in idleness, but
we did not overwork. In summer he
himself got up at four o'clock every morning and worked in his vineyard. The new house was heated with wood stoves and
a fireplace -- so there was a large amount of wood for us to bring in. Kerosene lamps were used to furnish light but
also many candles were used, and we helped Grandmother hang the wicks in the
long tin molds and pour in the heated tallow.
Twice each winter five or six hogs were butchered and that was a busy
time for everybody. Jim and I helped
make the little link sausages and lent a hand in the making of the headcheese,
souse, and pickled pigs’ feet. Hams,
shoulders, and sides of bacon had to be smoked with hickory wood in the big
smoke house and Jim and I were entrusted with the care of the slow smoking
fire.
John Phelps’
smokehouse, moved 2018 from his farm to Phelps Park by the Coliseum, Oregon,
Illinois.
Nothing was
wasted at Grandfathers and the wood ashes from all the winter fires were put in
a big ash hopper, a V shaped receptacle.
In the spring water was poured on and allowed to leach thro, the
resulting lye was used in making a supply of soap about a barrel of soft soap
and a quantity that was molded into bars.
That winter I spent at Grandfather Phelps he had a number of men cutting
cord wood and making posts and rails. As
he boarded these men extra provisions were needed. Hominy, both cracked and lye hominy, was a
favorite food so Grandfather fitted me out with a small hominy mill. He took a section of a big tree trunk, about
2 1/2 feet high and two feet in diameter.
On this solid block he fastened a heavy oak box 18 inches high with a
base 8 by 8 inches. Then he took a
hickory stick, split it up at one end and inserted a heavy iron wedge, binding
the stick tightly to hold the wedge in place and he smoothed and polished the
other end for a handle. I stood on the
solid block and used this instrument to crack the shelled corn I put into the
box. After the corn was sufficiently cracked,
I scooped it out and climbing a tall step ladder I would pour the cracked corn
into a box on the ground, the wind carrying away the chaff and the hull of the
corn. When it was well-cleaned of chaff
it was ready to be cooked. The lye
hominy was considered very superior, and Jim and I usually helped each other in
its making. The big iron kettle in the
smoke house fireplace was used. We
poured in a quantity of lye, heated it to boiling, then poured in about a
bushel of shelled corn and stirred it till the lye had eaten off the hull and
swelled the grains of corn, now looking snow white. Then we dipped out the corn into a special
basket, took it to the pump and pumped water over the hominy till every trace
of lye was washed away. When it was cooked no one could ask for better food.
It was not all
work at Grandfathers -- Jim and I played much of the time. That winter Jim and I decided to break two
yearling calves to drive. Grandfather
gave his consent and made us a small sled an exact duplicate of the big sleds
used. He took great pains in making it
and it was as complete and nice as it could be made, with box and seat and well-polished
runners. The yoke was modeled after the
big ox yokes with the bows and big iron ring just like those for the big
oxen. We had exciting sport breaking the
calves and afterward hauled wood or took long rides in our sled.
Two years passed
quickly and happily. I was having such a
good time I nearly forgot the family at St. Paul. Then one day when I was at Grandfather Swingley’s
playing in the hay field and having a fine time someone came out to the field
to tell me my father was at the house. I
went in and met him, he seemed like a stranger but soon I was eager to go with
him to Chicago where the family had now moved.
My father’s health was not good, he had asthma and the winters at St.
Paul were too severe -- so he had closed out his store and had moved to
Chicago, not planning to engage in very active business. After he had spent a few days visiting we
took the train for Chicago.
St. Paul had
seemed very large to me, but Chicago was so much larger. Chicago had about 200,000 population, ten
times as large as St. Paul had been.
There were so many people, the houses were so close together, block
after block, for some time I feared starvation for us all with so many to be
fed and no fields, no crops, nothing I could see to support so many. Life on the farm made me feel the need of
growing things.
Horse drawn streetcar
Chicago was like
a new world to me. I had never seen
street cars. They were drawn by a team
of horses with small bells on the harness jingling as the horses trotted along. My father was living at nearly the south
limits of Chicago -- 44th and Lake Avenue.
That was about two blocks from the lake.
The streetcar line ended at 39th and Cottage Grove Avenue, nearly a mile
from our home. Aunt Rill lived on Ellis Avenue,
so we saw Frank and Lida [quite often [about 8 blocks from each other in
southeast Chicago]. There was just one
school on the south side, The Hyde Park School, I attended it and knew most of
the boys on the south side of the city.
My brother, Charlie, attended Douglas University. We swam in the lake and played baseball. In a terrific storm on the lake a big
schooner was wrecked and cast ashore on the beach where we did our
swimming. It was never removed and
gradually went to pieces. It was a great
place to play. A heavy rope hung from
the top of the highest mast and as the schooner was tilted on its side, we
could carry the rope back on the beach and, using its knotted end as a seat,
swing way out over the water.
When we first
came to Chicago the only means of transportation were street cars. That was not rapid enough, so the Illinois
Central Railroad put on a suburban train consisting of an old engine and an old
coach. This ran from Hyde park to the
city three times each day -- morning, noon, and night. It was so well patronized they soon put on
two coaches. This was the beginning of
the great suburban train system to South Chicago. The smokestacks of the old engines were
diamond shaped and very large and they had painted the upper half of the smokestack
of this old engine a bright red so we boys named it "The Woodpecker".
My sister, May,
was very small. She had been born in St.
Paul but my two older sisters, Ella and Urilla, were young ladies. Gertrude was born in Chicago. Ella had met a young man, Frank Fridley, in
St. Paul and they were married soon after we moved to Chicago. Frank Fridley was a son of Major Fridley,
Indian agent for the Northwest and when Frank was a small boy some of the
Indians liked him so well, they used to take him to their camps and often keep
him for weeks teaching him all the accomplishments of an Indian boy hunter and
trapper.
One day Charlie
and I, with a crowd of neighbor boys were at the lake swimming. Suddenly it began to grow dark. It seemed to strange and unusual one of the
boys suggested it might be the end of the world. This so alarmed us we dressed and hurried
home and found all our family out in the yard looking at the sun through smoked
glasses. It was a total eclipse of the
sun and grew so dark our chickens went to roost. When the sun shone again the roosters crowed
and showed great excitement. [7 Aug 1869, Saturday, partial total eclipse, beginning
4:19pm].
My father’s
asthma continued to trouble him. He had
kept busy buying and selling real estate and doing some building but, in the
spring of 1871, he decided to move to Oregon, Illinois -- Grandfather Phelps' farm
was about three miles from there. That
fall Chicago had its great fire. It
lasted about three days and destroyed almost a third of the property value of
the city. There was such dense smoke it
drifted over the whole of northern Illinois, and at Oregon, a hundred miles
west of Chicago, there was so much smoke the sun looked like a great ball of
fire.
[Letter to: Henry S. Merritt
107 South Water
Street
Chicago, Ill.
Oregon
Tuesday
June 20, 1871
"My own dear Henry:
It is a bright glorious evening. Just a few moments ago I received your short
letter...
...I wish you could come out the day before (July 4th), the
train does not leave Chicago before about four o'clock in the evening, and gets
here at nine, it does not take so long as when we came the road is smoother
now.
You want me to write you all about our new home, I hardly know
how to begin. Our house is quite
pleasant on the inside, we are right on the principal business corner, part of
the building we are in is used as a dry goods store we have the rooms above the
store. Then there is a wing on one side
one story and a half, we use all of it, the wing addition was built about
seventeen years ago [1854], and the other part is just about as old as Chicago
which is thirty years [1839?], the style of architecture is quite ancient as
you can well imagine but it is the best we could do until we move into our new
house, which Pa intends to have excel anything here. From our sitting room upstairs, we can
overlook Rock River, the dam and mills are just below us, and the banks
opposite are so beautiful. I always sit
at this window and sew. It is so cool
and pleasant, an old apple tree nearly covers it with its foliage, in front of
one part of the building are two massive ...weeping willows they were planted
many years ago by Grandma Phelps, my piano is right by the window that is
shaded by them. Oregon is nearly
surrounded by bluffs. The situation is
as handsome as anyone could desire. This
week the grand time in all the year will pass in Mount Morris, the commencement
exercises at the Rock River Seminary, everyone from far and near will flock to
the Mount on that day...
Truly your loving
Rilla [Urilla S. Phelps]]
This is the building (that replaced the wooden
Building?) where Urilla Phelps and family lived.
[photo from “The Story of Oregon, Illinois. Sesquicentennial 1836-1986”,
page 207.]
Aunt Sarah and
Uncle Johnston were still living at Grandfather Phelps' when we moved to Oregon
but about a year later, they decided to live in Oregon and our family went to
live at Grandfather Phelps'. Not long
after we went out on the farm my sister Urilla was married to Henry
Merritt.
Aunt Sarah’s
health became very poor so Grandfather Phelps decided to take her South for a
visit with friends and relatives. They
visited in Tennessee and Kentucky for several months and returned home early in
March 1874. Grandfather began work at
once putting his grounds in fine shape as he was expecting some of the
relatives from the South to visit him.
It was cold damp weather, and he became ill with pneumonia, lived only a
few days, and died April 1, l874.
Grandfather had fought in the war of l8l2 and had been in command of a
company in the Black Hawk War, so he was buried with military honors. He was so well known and so well liked his
funeral was one of the largest that had ever been held in northern Illinois.
Grandfather
Phelps left quite an estate and when his will was read, we learned he had left
each of his grandchildren about two thousand dollars [$51,500 value in 2021]. Grandmother wanted my father to take charge
of the farm, so we continued to live there with her, and my father leased the
farm to tenants as his father had done.
Charlie, Effie, Ada, and I attended the Rock River Seminary at Mt.
Morris, two miles away and we drove back and forth to school. May and Gertrude went to the small country
school.
One year Charlie
and I leased forty acres of my father and raised a fine crop of corn. The next fall my brother went to Ann Arbor to
study law, and he graduated in the Law Class of 1877. He was a fine student, especially good in
Latin and Greek. I like mathematics and
had decided I wanted to become a manufacturing chemist. I visited Charlie at Ann Arbor, got the
necessary books for the first year in Chemistry and completed the first years’
work with the help of the Chemistry teacher at Rock River Seminary. After my brother was graduated my father
secured him a position in one of the good law firms of Chicago.
While Charlie was
away Effie, Ada, and I were having a very gay time. The farm was on the main road between the two
towns -- two miles from Mt. Morris and three miles from Oregon -- so it was a
half-way point for the young people of both towns. I was fond of the ladies and my father
provided me with a fine team and the use of a nice carriage in summer. In winter I had one of the nicest cutters to
be had. It was upholstered in red plush, and I had a white wolf skin robe lined
with red to match, and all the bells my horses’ harness could carry. There were lectures in Mt. Morris, the school
town, and parties and dances in Oregon.
Effie and Ada were very popular, and we had a fine time. At the farm, my mother let us entertain the
young folks of both towns with parties and picnics. Among our friends were Willard Cushing, a
young clerk in Sheets Hardware Store in Oregon, and the Mix children, Nettie
(Mrs. George Hormell) and her brother Fred.
My father was a
tall man nearly six feet -- slender and very straight. He was very active walked very rapidly and in
everything he did was very quick. In
disposition he was like Grandmother Phelps -- very kind and very
considerate. He never punished us
children but governed by praise and affection.
He always praised us so highly we tried not to fall too far short of his
high opinion of us. My father was fond
of hunting and was a good shot. He read
a great deal and was especially fond of poetry.
Robert Burns was his favorite poet.
My mother was of
the same kindly pleasant disposition.
They were both very hospitable and were always entertaining friends and
relatives. Both were so entertaining and
so friendly they were liked by everybody.
Nothing was ever too much trouble for them if it would add to the
happiness of the children. My father was always ready to let us do things. He always allowed my cousin Jim and me to
take the gun my grandfather had owned and go hunting. It was a very fine gun and after his death it
became mine because I valued it so highly [The gun was passed from John Phelps
to James Phelps to Frank Phelps, Sr, then Frank Phelps, Jr, then Courtney
Phelps. He died in 2010 and it is not known where the gun is.]
Grandmother
Phelps was very fond of company, too.
Though she was then more than eighty years old she was very pleasant
indeed. Then came word from my brother
that he was not well, and his firm had advised him to return home and
rest. He came home but grew steadily
worse and in September at the age of twenty-three, he passed away. This was a great grief to us all for he had
seemed to have such a fine future before him.
Charles Phelps 1855-1878
[Obituary:
Charles Phelps.
Farewell. It is our sad duty, as public chronicler to
record the death of Charles Leonidas Phelps, of consumption, at the residence
of his parents, Mr., and Mrs. J.C.T. Phelps, of Rockvale, on September 4th, at
eight o'clock p.m. Deceased was born in
the city of Peru, Illinois, twenty-three years ago, and shortly thereafter, his
parents removed to Polo, where Charles attended his first school. Afterward resided in St. Paul, Minn., several
years, and moved from thence to Chicago, where he became a student at Douglas
University for a couple of years, when the family returned to Ogle county,
making their residence in this city, where Charles for a short time attended
high school. Upon removal to the Phelps’s
estate, in Rockvale township, he entered Rock River Seminary, and pursued a
course of study for about two years. He
then went to Ann Arbor, and became a student in the law department of Michigan
University, where he graduated with the highest honors of his class and was
admitted to practice at the bar of the supreme courts of Michigan and Illinois,
at the age of twenty-one. He returned
and remained a short time at home after graduation, and then commenced reading
law with F.C. Ingalls in Chicago. In a
short time, his health gave way, and the disease which caused his death, seized
upon his frame. He returned home,
visited Colorado [both his parents accompanied him], but to no avail. -- After
sixteen months of suffering, his spirit passed to the brighter shore. During his long illness not, an unkind word
passed his lips, and a smile lingered on his face as he looked the last time
upon the loved ones who surrounded his couch.
Charley was an exemplary young man, of kind, noble and affectionate
disposition, and many mourn his demise.
The
funeral was held last Friday afternoon at his late residence and was attended
by a large concourse of neighbors and friends, Rev. L. Lipe, of Mt. Morris,
pronounced the discourse. The remains
were deposited in the family lot at Riverside cemetery, where "may they
rest in peace." ["The Ogle County Reporter, Oregon, Illinois.,
September 12, 1878. Publ. by T.O. Johnston]].
That winter my
sister Urilla came home to be with mother as she had not been feeling
well. In April Grandmother Phelps passed
away after a very short illness and a few weeks later my sister Urilla died,
leaving her two little boys, Frank, and Jamie Merritt motherless. My father and mother decided to keep the two
children for a time as their father was hardly able to care for such young children. The two little boys stayed with us for
several years -- then their father remarried and took them to
His home.
Urilla “Rilla”
Phelps Merritt 1851-1879 James L.
Merritt 1877-1948
[Merritt -- at the home of her parents, Rockvale township, this
county, on the evening of the 21st ult., of consumption, Mrs. Henry S. Merritt
of Elkader, Iowa, aged 28 years, one month, and 4 days.
Mrs. Merritt was the second daughter of Mr. and Mrs. James C.T.
Phelps, born to them on 17th of March 1851, she had been to them a joy and a
blessing a little over twenty-eight years.
The 8th of October 1873, she united in marriage with Mr.
Merritt, then in business in Chicago. A
few months after their marriage they moved to Elkader, Iowa.
Since last November Mrs. Merritt’s health began to fail. The symptoms, however, were not such as to
produce apprehensions of serious danger until quite recently. Coming with her family to the home of her
parents, several weeks ago, she took her bed immediately and did not leave it
until borne to the city of the dead.
She passed through affliction without a murmur. Never was spirit more patient in suffering
and more tranquil as it approached the gates of death. Her last words were these: "Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace
--" then her voice failed, and her husband's sister finished the verse,
"whose mind is stayed on the Cross."
With a smile she expressed her gratitude and soon passed away.
The qualities of her character were such as to win all who
learned to know her. Her memory will be
cherished, not only by husband and relatives, but by a large circle of friends,
both in this vicinity and at her late home in Elkader.
Deceased leaves a husband and two children to mourn her
loss. And, yet she is not lost to them
-- only gone before. May there be a glad
meeting in the spirit land -- wife and mother greeting husband and children to
the realms of the blest.
The funeral services were conducted by Rev. L.L. Lipe, at the
residence of her parents, Wednesday afternoon, the 23d inst. A large number of friends followed the mortal
remains of Mrs. Merritt to Riverview cemetery. [The Ogle County Democrat, May
1, 1879, Oregon, Ill.]
From the Clayton County, Iowa, paper of Elkader:
Death -- We reprint, to-day, from the local paper, in Illinois,
where Mrs. Merritt was born and raised, the formal notice of her death, with
the tender words of a writer who knew her from childhood [her cousin T. Oscar
Johnston]. These words will find a quick
response in the heart of every Elkader friend who knew her. Cradled, and cultured, and petted in a home
of wealth, she had the graces which of right belong to such a position, without
a shadow of loss to those womanly qualities which made her a worshiped wife, a
devoted mother, a helpful and beloved neighbor, and friend. For little "Frankie" -- who has
long been the pet of our household as well as his own -- and the still younger
"Jamie," and the true husband, who, of all men, would seem least
deserving of the affliction of a broken home, we record these earnest words of
sympathy, and ask the blessings of Heaven.]
Less than a month
after Urilla's death Grandmother Swingley passed away. That was a sad year.
We had lived on
Grandfather Phelps' farm for about six years, but after Grandmother Phelps
death the property of his estate had to be sold and, Uncle Johnston having
bought the farm, we moved to Mt. Morris.
Everything had to be sold for cash which made the property sell for
less. With the money I received from
Grandfather's estate I bought some of the estate property -- a mill tract of
160 acres where Grandfather had had a sawmill, and a heavily timbered tract of
80 acres. I bid in the entire 240 acres
at $8.00 an acre. A short time after
that I sold the 160 acres at $13.00 an acre, getting what practically amounted
to cash for it and about a year later I sold the heavily timbered 80 for
$2,000.00 all cash. I had more than
doubled my capital in my first financial venture. I also bid in the wine Grandfather had in his
wine cellar -- some 4500 gallons of grape wine of different varieties of
grapes. This I sold a little later to a
wholesale importing wine company in Chicago and made a good profit. In this transaction I was acting as an agent
for my father and did not benefit financially.
In the spring of 1880,
there was considerable political excitement.
The Republican National Convention was to be held in Chicago in June
[June 2-11]. One of my best friends,
Merritt Pinckney [1859-1926], was in Chicago visiting relatives. He invited me to come to Chicago and attend
the Convention with him. I conceived the
idea of our taking a trip East. My
father thought well of it and I persuaded Merritt’s father to let Merritt go
with me. I then went to Chicago and told
Merritt the good news. We found it so
difficult to get tickets for the Convention we decided not to delay, and we
spent about a week sightseeing. While
there we heard James A. Garfield had received the presidential nomination. From Washington we went to New York and spent
nearly a week there. We decided to take
a boat to Boston and very thoughtfully wrote home telling of our plan to leave
for Boston that evening on a certain steamboat.
We went to the pier that evening but Merritt suddenly began feeling so
ill he decided we'd better not go -- so we gave up that trip and the next
morning, Merritt feeling alright again, we took a boat up the Hudson to
Albany. The morning papers carried big
headlines about the terrible loss of life in a collision of two steamboats, one
being the boat we had intended to take.
We felt very thankful we had changed our plans, but it did not occur to
us to write home that we were safe. We
were having a grand time and until we had visited Niagara Falls and arrived in
Buffalo almost a week later, we never wrote any letters -- our parents
believing we had been lost in the accident.
We did write to them at Buffalo to tell them we were taking the boat
there for home by way of the lakes.
I had expected to
go to Ann Arbor but after my brother’s death my father and mother persuaded me
to give up the idea of studying Chemistry.
My health had never been very rugged, and they felt it was not wise for
me to be working in a Chemical Laboratory.
I was twenty-two and I wanted to get into some line of business. I had a small capital of $4000 and felt very
competent to do almost anything. My idea
was some kind of manufacturing, and to go farther West and start into
business. My father approved of this and
offered to go with me to look things over.
He had retired from business, his asthma troubled him greatly and he thot
a milder climate would be beneficial. He
thot of moving to southern California but wanted to get me settled in some line
of business before he decides definitely.
We went west as
far as Wichita, Kansas and while there heard of a new town, Wellington. It would have a railroad in about two months
and was booming. We took a stage down to
Wellington and thot well of it but could not rent a store building. My father’s idea was to set me up in the
general mercantile business. We returned
to Wichita and at our hotel we met a man from Iowa who had shipped a stock of
goods to Wichita intending to open a store there. He suggested that I go into partnership with
him, or I could work for him till I was satisfied what I wanted to do. I agreed to work for him, and my father
returned to Mt. Morris.
My prospective
employer was unable to find a suitable location. Everybody was talking of Kansas City -- what
a wonderful business place it was. It
had a population of about 50,000 and was growing very rapidly so I suggested to
him that he go to Kansas City and see what he thot of it as a business
location. He decided to do so and told
me to wait in Wichita and he would wire me his decision. I waited two days and not hearing from him I
decided to go to Kansas City myself and look things over. After spending several days in Kansas City and
being very much pleased with it I happened to meet the Iowa man on the street,
and he told me he was going back to Wichita to rent a building if he could and
for me to wait will the next evening. If
I did not hear from him by five o'clock, I need wait no longer. I did not get any wire from him, so I took
the train to St. Louis and went back home by way of Chicago. My father laughed when he saw me and said if
he hadn't taken the shortest road, I would have beat him home.
I gave such a
glowing description of Kansas City my father decided to go there and see how he
liked it. He went to Kansas City, stayed
about two weeks, and was so well pleased he decided to make his home there
instead of going to California.
We moved to
Kansas City in the fall of 1880 and rented a very pleasant house at 9th and
Tracy Avenue. Aunt Rilla Clark came to
Mt. Morris to assist us in the moving and then she and Lida came with us to
Kansas City and spent the winter. Frank
and Jamie Merritt were with us too, so it was quite a household.
Kansas City was a
great change for us. We felt we had gone
quite a way South, and we all enjoyed it very much. People were very friendly, and we soon felt
acquainted. That winter we spent much
time sight-seeing and having a good time.
I took a course at Spaulding’s Commercial College and soon after
completed that course I bought a half interest in a shoe factory -- the firm
being called Phelps & Hahn. Mr. Hahn
was a young man from Milwaukee, experienced in the manufacturing of shoes. Our factory was located at 5th and Wyandotte
and we manufactured women's and children's shoes exclusively. Mr. Hahn looked after the manufacturing and I
had charge of the office.
That fall, 1881,
my father decided to build a nice home and found a site that pleased him
exactly -- a high and sightly location in the south western part of the city,
overlooking the Rosedale, the Kaw, and the Missouri River valleys. Work was begun and it was such a mild winter
the buildings was continued with-out any delay.
We moved into the new home in May 1882 and my father began getting in
shape the grounds -- some 
three
acres in extent, covered with fine big forest trees. I rode horseback back and forth to my work at
the shoe factory. There was no streetcar
line south of 12th street and we were about three miles out in the
suburbs.
Graystone
Heights, Kansas City, Kansas
Greystone Heights (historical) on modern Kansas City Map.
["The Ogle County Democrat", Published John Sharer,
Oregon, Illinois. Thursday Dec. 21,
1882.
Kansas City, Missouri
...Coming back to the south-east point of the eastern ledge, we
find the reservoir -- water supply to the city -- directly in front of which
and almost on the break of the hill stands the residence of Messrs. Swingley
and Wheeler, their office being in the bottom 3/4 of a mile to the west. Just south of this high point the ground
slopes away into a valley which winds up east into the main city east and
north-east.
Across the valley, far away south by southwest where the Kaw
comes in from the south-west, is another very high hill, round and sloping in
all directions, save the Kaw ward: here the front is bold and abounding in
ledgy points. On one of these stands the
residence of James Phelps. It is at
present somewhat difficult to access, but this will be speedily remedied, [see
letter by Belle Hormell] and when one is once there in the toe-cork of the
great horse-shoe bend, the view on every hand is almost unsurpassed. Standing on the front porch at night, the
looker on sees directly before him the dark bottom lit up with a hundred
flashing headlights of engines, and by thousands lesser lights in the city
on..." [John Sharer, the editor,
was son of Henry Sharer (brother of Eliza Sharer Swingley -- wife of Nathaniel
Swingley). John H. Swingley, and W. H.
Wheeler mentioned above are son-in-laws of Henry Sharer].
Belle M. Hormell [94 years
old] October 10th, 1979
30 East 52nd Street
Kansas City, Missouri 64112
Dear Gordon:
...What a flood of memories came over me as I read
your inquiries about the Phelps family!
They have been part of my life always and I was a sizable girl before I
knew that the various Phelps connected "aunts and uncles" as we
called them were not related by blood to the Mix-Hormell group but were devoted
friends through many generations.
I never knew any of the Phelps family relatives...
that you mentioned... All the rest of that Phelps family I knew and
remember. Their father, I recall, was
Mr. James Phelps...son of John Phelps, founder of the "City" of
Oregon, Ill. as it was then called.
Shortly after
that my great-grandfather Dr. William J. Mix came
from Vermont to Illinois and was for many years the first (and only) doctor in
Oregon, Ill. The close family friendship
started with him and John Phelps -- then my grandfather (this was all on my
mother's side of the family) was a close friend of Urilla's father. My mother and brother and sister
and various Mix cousins continued these ties which
lasted down into my generation.
There was never any business connection between the
Mixes or Hormells and the Phelps family...
When I first remember Mr. Phelps, I was six years
old when we moved to Kansas City in 1892.
He was then retired, a handsome striking figure tall, slender, white
hair and beard, every inch a real gentleman.
He and his lovely gentle wife Ann Swingley Phelps lived in an imposing
large brick house with large grounds about it on a high bluff overlooking the
Kaw River Valley. It was terribly
inaccessible but that did not prevent their many friends coming to them
regularly.
One of my happiest childhood memories was the almost
every week expedition my father and mother and I made along with the Phelps'
daughters and their families -- we had no relatives in this area, and they
included us as if we were part of the family.
Mr. and Mrs. Phelps died within a few weeks of each other. I don't recall the date -- in the
mid-nineties I should say.
Four of their surviving children lived on in K.C.,
the large
house was soon sold, Ada Phelps Cushing, Effie
Phelps Hoover, Gertrude Phelps Hunnie, Frank Phelps, father of Frank Phelps,
Jr. who now lives in St. Louis.
In my High School days, the various Phelps
descendants of my generation continued to include me in their good times
together. Mr. Cushing husband of Ada
Phelps was my father's closest friend down the time of their deaths, ever since
their boyhood days in Ogle County.
I hear at least once a year from Frank Phelps in St.
Louis. He is the only one left that I
personally know of the younger Phelps grandchildren, except Earl Hoover (of
Hoover Sweeper fame)...
...Many times, in my younger years I have heard the
various Phelps cousins speak of "Aunt Rill". What an unexpected echo from the past to have
had your letter.
Sincerely yours,
Belle Hormell
[1885-1987]
[source: Gordon Merritt, Seattle, WA].
According to the article
“The Demise of Toad-a-Loop,” published in 2001 by The Historical Journal of
Wyandotte County, the neighborhood was “the horseshoe area
surrounding Greystone Heights with a portion crossing over into Jackson County,
Missouri” and was “noted for criminal gang activity for over 25 years until
about 1905.”
Everything was
prospering in our business. We had been
in business a little over a year and had so many orders we had to work
over-time to fill them. Mr. Hahn and I
had been talking about our business matters and congratulating ourselves on how
well everything was going when a disastrous cyclone struck Kansas City and our
factory was directly in its path. We
occupied a three-story brick building, and the cyclone completely wrecked the
two upper stories. A terrific rain
followed the wind and ruined what had not been wrecked. The only consoling thought was that we were
not killed -- the storm came in the night, otherwise there would certainly have
been great loss of life in the factory.
It was a stunning
blow. We salvaged what we could and
finding we did not have sufficient capital to start over again, we sold out to
a firm in Leavenworth.
Kansas City was
growing rapidly, and railroads were reaching out more and more to the Pacific
Ocean. When I was making a little visit
to my sister Ella in Minnesota. I
happened to be in St. Paul at the opening of the Northern Pacific
Railroad. Villard was President of the
road and he was present with some 400 stockholders -- largely European capital
I think financed the road. President
Arthur and General Phil Sheridan and part of the president’s cabinet arrived in
St. Paul from Yellowstone Park to be present at the opening [Sept. 3, 1883
Celebration of the completion of the Eastern Terminus at St. Paul .
My next venture
was in the wholesale fruit and produce commission business. I bought a half interest in the firm of
Gardner and Blossom the firm name being changed to Blossom andPhelps. In this again I handled the office work. We did well in the produce commission but
lost considerable in handling tropical fruits.
After about two years Mr. Blossom wanting to dissolve partnership and I
rented a good location and prepared to engage in the produce commission by
myself. A friend, D.E. Smeltzer, wanted
to go in with me and we formed the partnership of Phelps and Smeltzer,
continuing in business under that name about a year. We made a fair profit, but Kansas City was
having a real-estate boom and I became interested in real-estate and sold out
my interest in the commission business to my partner.
I had my
real-estate office first at 9th and Main, in the Sheidley Building and later
office with Bush Bros. at Tenth and Walnut.
I had a horse and buggy and drove back and forth from home. Effie had married a young man she had met in
Kansas City, Frank K. Hoover, and they lived in Kansas City. Ada was married soon after to Willard Cushing
and had gone back to Illinois. Later
they moved to Kansas City and Mr. Cushing built a home on Greystone Heights --
not far from my father's.
In 1887 I found a
small new house on the south side of the city.
Thirty-first Street was then the south city limits and this house 3013
Baltimore Avenue stood on one of the highest locations on the south side. I decided to buy it and was able to rent it
at once to Mr. and Mrs. Cushing, who lived there about a year and a half till
they built their home at Greystone.
There was a streetcar line on Main Street, a block east. This car line of little mule-car line ran
from downtown to Westport. Westport was
an older town than Kansas City and used to be called Westport Landing. It was on the Santa Fe Trail and had been an
outfitting point even in 1849 when men were crossing the plains.
Along about this
time the railroads were having a big rate war and it became so bitter one of
the roads offered a round trip ticket to San Francisco for $14.00. Three of my friends were in favor of going so
we made up a party of four and had a very delightful trip. We went the latter part of March to San
Francisco, then took the steamer down the coast to San Diego, stopping at
points on the coast. We spent about a
month sight-seeing. On our return when
our train stopped for dinner at the entrance to Black Canyon, a mountain slide
occurred that held us there for two days.
Other excursions' trains kept coming in till all provisions gave out and
it was a hungry crowd that finally left there.
I continued in
the real estate business and also began handling tax securities. My father and mother enjoyed their home on
Greystone Heights and entertained much company.
Grandfather's brother, Uncle Ben Phelps, and his family had moved from
Illinois to Independence, Missouri. May
and Gertrude had many young friends and much company, so it was never
lonely. In 1891 Gertrude married D.
Albert Hunie and two years later May married Charles Wood. When she left home, I was the only one of the
children left at home. My young cousin,
Bert Swingley, the son of my mother’s brother Jacob, was living with us as he
had lost both parents when he was very small.
[Re:
Jacob Swingley -- [19 June 1886] An Insane Man Cuts the Throats Of His Children
And Himself:
Friday
night was the scene of a sad and horrible tragedy; Jacob Swingley cutting the
throats of two of his children; a boy seven [Bert], and a girl four [Maggie],
and of himself. The murder and suicide
were not known until the next morning when the housekeeper went downstairs
where Mr. Swingley had kept the children saying he wanted them to sleep
there. The other two children had slept upstairs
with the housekeeper.
A
razor was the weapon with which the insane man wrought the deed, and the girl's
little head, like his own was nearly severed from the body. The boy may recover, although he had bled
until too weak to call for assistance.
Before
this horrible work, Mr. Swingley had written a brief letter Friday directing
the disposal of his property.
The
deceased had lived in Creston and near there at Broadies grove all his life,
and belonged to a family of unusual intelligence, wealth, and prominence. He was industrious and well-to-do. Not until after the death of his wife last
February did, he show more than light symptoms of melancholia, and this
resulted from his imagining that several persons intended to deprive him of his
children.
Mr.
Swingley was respected by all who knew him, and many had from the day of his
birth, for he was upright and honest in all his transactions, harming no one,
and only the vagaries of a disordered brain can be attributed to the last and
terrible act of his life and death.
[Ogle
County Press, Polo, Ill., Saturday, June 26, 1886]].
About this time,
I became acquainted with B.C. Beed, a wealthy man from Iowa who had money to
invest. We became good friends and did
business together for many years.
Chicago had a
great World’s Fair in 1893 and Aunt Rill invited me to visit her and attend the
Fair. I spent about a week there. The Fairgrounds were out where we as boys,
had hunted frogs and picked hazelnuts.
Then it had been swampy ground. I
met Uncle Upton Swingley in Chicago and together we attended the Fair on
Chicago Day when 750,000 people were said to have been on the grounds, the big
day of the Fair.
Frank Clark and I
had a good visit. We had not seen each
other for a good many years, and we had pleasure in recalling some of the good
times we had had together as boys. One
of the most vivid remembrances was of attending a matinee at McVicker Theater
to see Joseph Jefferson playing in Rip van Winkle. I had gone to Chicago form Oregon on a visit
to Frank Clark. We were not very large,
and Frank took me to see this play. It
was so real and so wonderful I forgot it was a play and when it ended, I was
dazed and hardly knew where I was. I had
been so far away with Rip van Winkle and those little men of the
mountains.
In the summer of
1895, my sisters May and Gertrude were visiting us and May invited her
sister-in-law, Eleanor Wood, to come to Kansas City for a little visit. My mother had met her when she had visited at
May's home in Iowa and had spoken of her and said she wanted me to meet Miss
Wood. She spent a week with us returning
to Iowa with May -- and we planned to be married the coming spring.
A family reunion
was planned for Christmas that year and all my sisters were at home when the
day before Christmas my father died of pneumonia, ill only a few days. The shock and grief over his passing were too
much for my mother and in less than a month she passed away too. My sister, Gertrude, and her husband decided
to stay in Kansas City and Bert Swingley and I and Gertrude and her husband
stayed in the home at Greystone for a time, but the home seemed so much too
large and was so lonely we moved to my house on Baltimore Avenue. The family thot it best to sell off all the
furnishings at Greystone so I bought all I could use in furnishing my house at
3013 Baltimore and the others bought all they could use in their homes. That fall I was married and the five of us
lived together for a year or more.
Mr. Cushing and I
were the executors of my father’s estate and under the will had power to use
our discretion in disposing of the property.
His estate consisted largely of real estate, and not wanting to
sacrifice it we took time to try to sell it under favorable circumstances. We succeeded in getting fair prices in the
main. Finally, all had been sold except
the home and thirteen and a half acres on Greystone Heights. The development of Kansas City had made that
location almost the center of the two Kansas Cities, Kansas City, Missouri and
Kansas City, Kansas and the property were surrounded on three sides by
railroads. We were unable to sell the
property for anything like what I thot it worth and it had ceased to be
desirable residence property, so I suggested we put in a modern rock crushing
plant and utilize the heavy thirty-foot ledge of rock immediately underlying
the surface. All the heirs favored doing
this except the two Merritt boys, sons of my sister, Urilla. They did not care to join in this so Mr.
Hoover bought their interest and we incorporated under the name of The Phelps
Stone and Supply Company. Our plan was
to put in a modern rock crushing plant and hire an experienced rock man to
manage it. We did this and were just
ready to begin.
operations with
some big rock orders, when our manager was taken sick and died very suddenly,
then our engineer took sick and died a few days later.
This left our
plant ready to operate, some good big orders on hand, and no one to take
charge. As I was responsible for our
going into the rock business, I felt it was up to me to step in and manage it
till we could find an experienced man to head the business. I knew nothing at all of the rock business
but engaged a young man, Harry Nicholas, who had had some experience, to assist
me and was fortunate enough to find a good foreman for the rock quarry and a
competent engineer. We began work at
once there was a growing demand for crushed rock for all kinds of construction
and our business improved so I just continued to manage it and gave up my other
business.
We continued in
the rock business about eleven years.
Then the World War made such changes in business we were compelled to
shut down the plant. At the close of the
war "The Phelps Stone and Supply Company" was able to sell the plant
and lease the rock and shale on a royalty basis.
When the plant
shut down it did not seem to me a favorable time for me to engage in any new
business, so, the opportunity presenting itself I took a position with the
Emery, Bird, Thayer Dry Goods Company in their credit department and continued
with them till I retired from business at the age of seventy-five.
While I have
never tried to study the Phelps family history to any great extent I was
sufficiently interested to buy two volumes of "The Phelps Family of
America and their English Ancestry" when I learned of its existence and I
found it of interest to learn that the first Phelps to come to America was one
William Phelps who came from England in about 1630 and afterward lived at
Windsor, Connecticut.
Uncle Ben Phelps' daughter Margaret told me of a very interesting trip she had with her niece Julia Phelps in 1920. They had been in Connecticut and knowing the family records told of Windsor as the home of William Phelps, founder of the family in America, they decided to go to Windsor to see if they could find any trace of the family after about three hundred years.
Margaret “Maggie” L. Phelps (1863-1939), John Phelps’ niece; favorite high school history teacher of President Harry Truman at Independence, Missouri. (Photo courtesy of Truman Library, copyright status unknown.)
When they arrived
at Windsor they inquired if there were any Phelps to be found there were told
there were plenty in the graveyard. They
went to the old church yard and found many graves with very old markers dating
far back. Then they were told a Miss
Martha Phelps lived near and they went to her home. They found she was a direct descendent of
William Phelps and thot she was living in the house built by him in about
1640. It was a brick house, much of the
original brick had been brought from England in that early day and the land it
was on was given to William Phelps by the state of Connecticut.
Miss Martha
Phelps was then, in l920, about seventy years old and she was very cordial in
her welcome when they explained why they had come. She said she had no doubt of Margaret and
Julia being of her family, there was such a strong family resemblance. There were many portraits on the walls,
silhouettes in many cases and Margaret said they too could see the Phelps
features in the pictures resembled the family as they knew it. Miss Martha Phelps showed them over the house
which she said had been occupied by Phelps ever since it was built -- going
from father to son till it had come to her -- there being no son in her father’s
family. She had a married sister with
two daughters and so it would mean the house would now go to someone not of the
Phelps name.
The house had
been added to through all these many years and it had been modernized to make
it more comfortable, but an effort had been made to preserve it as nearly as
possible as it was originally. There
were still the great doors through which immense logs had been hauled into the
big fireplace. The portraits and
furnishings were beautifully kept mahogany, very antique indeed. Many of the portraits were silhouettes and
they were shown many daguerreotypes.
Miss Martha
Phelps was very proud of her ancestry and told them William Phelps sat on the
first jury to try a case in New England and that he helped write the
Constitution of Connecticut. According
to Miss Martha Phelps William Phelps was given 250 acres of land by the state
of Connecticut to reward him for his services.
[The 1899 Phelps Family Book that the Benjamin Phelps family and Frank
N. Phelps family had purchased.
Since that time
it has been found that the New England Phelps have no known connection with the
Virginia Phelps family of John Phelps.]
I have continued
to live at 3013 Baltimore Avenue and my son, Frank Jr. was born there. Westport has been consolidated with Kansas
City, Missouri and the south city limits have been extended several miles
beyond thirty-first street. Automobiles,
airplanes, the radio, and the many ways of using electricity have made
wonderful changes. I have always had a great
faith in the future of Kansas City, and it has made remarkable growth in the
years I have lived here.
[Unpublished
typescript, dictated by Frank N. Phelps, Sr., l945].
---------------------------------------------------------------------
[Obituary:(Mount
Morris Index, Mount Morris, Ogle County, Illinois) Mrs. Urilla (Swingley) Clark
numbered by many Mount Morris relatives and friends, died in her 89th year at
her late residence, 3821 Ellis Avenue, Chicago, Saturday morning, June 11[1921]
after a short illness. She was born near
Hagerstown, Md., Dec. 20, 1832.
Mrs. Clark came
to Illinois with her parents in 1838 traveling by water down the Ohio river and
up the Illinois river to Peru, thence by wagon to Rock River Valley, where they
settled on a tract of land one mile east of Mount Morris. Her father, Capt. Nathaniel Swingley, was one
of the founders of Rock River Seminary, now Mount Morris College, and Mrs.
Clark was among the first students to attend that early day school.
In 1857 Mrs. Clark
came to Chicago as the bride of Francis Clark, at that time one of the leading
dry goods merchants of the city. They
resided on Michigan Avenue near Randolph Street, the water of the lake being
just across the street. The following
year Mr. Clark built a country house near the lake and thirty-eighth street, in
what was then known as Clearerville, and Mrs. Clark resided there until the
time of
her death.
Mrs. Clark was a
member of the First Presbyterian Church and for many years was a member of the Board
of Directors of the Young Women's Christian Association. She is survived by her son, Francis H. Clark
and her daughter, Lida U. Clark.
Mrs. Clark was a
woman of exceptional attainments and none could excel in the gracious
hospitality extended at her home. She
was the last surviving member of a family of five brothers and two
sisters. Notice of her death has been
received with sadness and deep regret by those who shared her
acquaintance.
-------
[(Clayton County,
Iowa, December 1910) Obituary, Henry S. (Sanford) Merritt
Henry S. Merritt
died at 6:30, Friday afternoon, November 25th, at the (State) hospital at
Independence (Iowa), after a brief illness of bronchial pneumonia, aged 59
years.
Henry S. Merritt
was born at Medina, New York, June 26th, 1851, the sixth
son (should be
second son) of Levan W. and Cynthia P. Merritt.
In 1868 he went
to Chicago [he boarded with Urilla Clark some of the time] and in 1873 was
married to Miss Urilla L. [should be S., she had boarded with aunt Urilla Clark
1867-68 and apparently met Henry through that connection] Phelps, of Oregon,
Ill., coming to Elkader soon after his marriage and associating himself in the
mercantile business with his brother-in-law, Mr. Fridley. Later they disposed of their business and
prepared a set of abstract books of Clayton county and conducted an abstract
office.
Mrs. Merritt died
in 1879 leaving two sons, Frank H., now living at Milford, Iowa, and James L.,
living at Seattle, Wash.
In 1880, having
disposed of their abstract business, Messrs. Fridley and Merritt engaged in the
mercantile business, in Minnesota, but in 1882 Mr. Merritt returned to Elkader
and was married to Ella Havens, who survives him, together with their son Isaac
H., of Denver, Col. He also leaves four
grandchildren, a brother, Charles J., of Medina, New York, and two sisters,
Miss Julia and Miss Cynthia A. Merritt, of Pasadema, Cal.
During the
eighties Mr. Merritt was engaged for a time in the drug business here and later
conducted a general store, which was sold to H. Niemeyer about 1890.
He was a fine
penman and an expert accountant, besides being a genial friendly man who made
warm friends of all who knew him.
About twenty
years ago he became afflicted with the disease
(epilepsy, per
the death certificate; family tradition said depression, from the death of his
first wife) that later necessitated his being taken to the hospital at
Independence, where every possible care was given him and where he greatly
endeared himself to those about him, doing considerable clerical work in the
office of the institution at times when he was able.
His body was
taken to Medina, New York, accompanied by Mr. Merritt and his eldest son Frank,
and the funeral services were held last week Wednesday afternoon from his old
home, Rev. J. H. Herendeen officiating.
He was laid to rest in the family lot in the beautiful Boxwood cemetery
at Medina.]
Frank Fridley (1847-1903)
[Minneapolis
Times, Thursday, March 12, 1903. Frank
Fridley died after short illness. One of
the leading citizens of Becker succumbs to pneumonia at Chicago.
Frank Fridley, a
leading citizen of Becker, Minn. died from pneumonia in Chicago on Tuesday
night.
Mr. Fridley was
engaged in stock-raising and left his home last Friday in perfect health with
several carloads of cattle, and his sudden death comes as a shock not only to
his family but to a host of friends in Sherburne County and throughout the
state.
He was born in
Corning, N.Y., fifty-six years ago. He
came to Minnesota in 1851 and resided in St. Anthony for several years. He was a son of the late Major A.M. Fridley
and a brother of Henry C. Fridley of Fridley, Minn.
The funeral will
be held from the Episcopal church in Becker to-morrow afternoon at 1
o'clock. His remains will be brought to
Minneapolis, arriving at the Union Depot on the same afternoon at 4:55 o'clock
and the internment will take place at the Fridley lot at Lakewood Cemetery.
Mr. Fridley
leaves a widow, two sons, two daughters and two brothers.]
--------
Major A. M. Fridley
Obituary of Major
A.M. Fridley, father of Frank Fridley,
Minneapolis
Tribune, March 27, 1888.
MAJ. FRIDLEY DEAD
Another Pioneer Minnesotan
Gone, After a Long and Useful Life
Maj. A.M. Fridley
died yesterday morning at 7 o'clock at his home in the town of Fridley,
northeast of Minneapolis, of dropsy of the heart, at the age of 71 years. The funeral will occur today at his late
home.
Few men in
Minnesota, outside of Minneapolis and St. Paul, were more fully identified with
the early history of the state than Abram McCormick Fridley. He was born on the 1st of May 1817, at the
town of Painted Post, now Corning, Steuben County, New York. His parents, John and Catherine Heckert
Fridley were Pennsylvanians, whose parents emigrated from Germany to this
country. Mr. Fridley received a common
school education in the New York public schools and at 21 became deputy sheriff
of Steuben county. He was afterwards
appointed collector of canal tolls at Port Corning, a position of great
responsibility at the time.
In April 1851,
Mr. Fridley was appointed Indian agent for the Winnebago tribe, then located at
Long Prairie, Todd County, Minn., and with the office he received the title of
major. The appointment as Maj. Fridley
was always proud to explain came not through a congressman or any political
influence but was the result of a personal summons to Washington by President
Fillmore who tendered him the position.
The same year he was admitted to practice in all the courts in the
territory having read law in Corning, N.Y. with Judge Johnson. Two years later he removed to St. Paul and
was soon after elected sheriff of Ramsey county. While in this office he performed the first
legal execution that ever took place in the territory -- the hanging of an
Indian who had been convicted of murder.
As deputies were scarce in those days, Maj. Fridley performed the
delicate task of pulling the drop himself.
A year after he removed to the Falls of St. Anthony and located his farm
four miles above the falls, the site of the present thriving suburb named after
him.
[He was elected a
representative in the territorial legislature of 1855 and also of the state
legislatures of 1869-70-71 and 1879, serving also four years as regent of the
University of Minnesota. For many years
he was land agent for the great Northern Railroad Company. He was a personal friend of James J. Hill and
was frequently consulted upon matters of importance. Major Fridley was in many respects a
remarkable man. He was a courageous and
aggressive pioneer in the early days of Minnesota, and was very active in
public life, and did a great deal for the development of the state. In politics Major Fridley had been a Whig,
and later acted with the Democracy. In
1860 he was a delegate from Minnesota to the national Democratic conventions at
Charleston and Baltimore and was always an influential man in the party. His son, Henry C. Fridley, still lives in the
well-built house constructed in territorial days on the old homestead in the
town of Fridley. (See portrait, page 163).
(Goodrich, Albert M., History of Anoka County, Minnesota., Publ.
Hennepin Publ. Co. 1905. p.218.)]
In 1869 Mr.
Fridley became a resident of Sherburne county, [Becker] where he had a large
farm, but afterward returned to Fridley farm, [at Fridley] near Minneapolis,
where he died. Maj. Fridley had been
married 49 years, when he died, to his wife, who survives him, as well as three
sons, Henry C. and David H. who reside at Fridley, and Frank, who is at the old
homestead in [Becker,] Sherburne county.
A daughter, Mary, died 20 years ago.
These comprised his family. The
estate left by the deceased pioneer will probably foot up in the neighborhood
of half a million dollars, largely in lands.
The funeral will take place this afternoon ...the residence, with
Episcopal... by Rev. A.J. Graham, rector ... Trinity Church. The burial will be at Lakewood Cemetery.
------------
[Minneapolis
Journal, Minneapolis, Minnesota, Dec. 29, 1928,
p.8, col. 1,
Obituary Ella Leora Phelps Fridley, died 28 Dec. 1928:
Urilla Phelps Merritt and Ella Phelps Fridley
Mrs. Ella L.
Fridley, Pioneer, 79, Dies
Mrs. Ella L.
Fridley, pioneer resident of Minnesota, died Friday at her home in the
Buckingham hotel. She was 79 years
old.
Mrs. Fridley was
born at Oregon, Ill., in 1850, and came to the Twin Cities with her parents
about 1860. In 1869 she was married to
Frank Fridley and moved with him to Fridley, Minn. Later she moved to Becker, Minn., and while
there was instrumental in establishing churches and was active in social and
welfare work.
In 1905,
following the death of her husband. Mrs.
Fridley moved to Minneapolis, and has lived here since. Funeral services will be conducted Monday at
12:45 p.m. at Lake wood chapel under the auspices of the Second Church of
Christ Scientist.
Mrs. Fridley is
survived by a daughter, Mrs. F.R. Brasie, and two sons, John P. and Frank L.,
all of Minneapolis. Burial will be in
Lakewood cemetery.]
-------
Obituary: Frank
H. Merritt, Jan. 4, l945, "Milford Mail", Milford, Iowa.
Frank H. Merritt
Dies In Spirit Lake Hospital Tuesday
This community
was again called upon to suffer the loss of a prominent citizen when Frank H.
Merritt was called to his enternal rest on Tuesday afternoon. Mr. Merritt died at the Spirit Lake hospital
late Tuesday afternoon following a few days illness. He had been at work at the Tierney drug store
as usual Saturday forenoon but became ill as he was going home at noon. Mrs. Merritt and daughter, Mrs. Ruth Waring,
were visiting at St. Paul with their daughter and sister, Mrs. P.C. Mackey and
family at the time and Mr. Merritt did not summon help until the middle of the
afternoon.
A physician was
called and early that evening Mr. Merritt was taken by ambulance to the
hospital. Mrs. Merritt and Ruth were
summoned and arrived home Sunday afternoon on the bus. While it was known that Mr. Merritt was
seriously ill his sudden passing came as a shock to his family and
friends. He had laughed and joked with
friends at noon and again in the early afternoon. Mrs. Merritt and Ruth, who had been at the
hospital with him, accompanied H.J. Tierney to Milford. Upon their arrival home they were informed
they were to return to the hospital immediately, but Mr. Merritt had died
before they reached the hospital.
Mr. Merritt was
69 years of age at the time of his death and had resided in Milford for over 40
years. He numbered his friends by his acquaintances. He was a man who never spoke ill of any one
and was always ready and willing to lend a helping hand to anyone in trouble or
need. He was a good and loyal citizen,
ready and anxious to assist in any worthwhile cause for the betterment of the
town or community.
He was born in
Oregon, Ill., on July 21, 1873. His
mother died when he was three years old and for a time, he and his brother
James lived with their grandparents in Kansas City. Later the father remarried, and the boys went
to live at Elkader with their father and stepmother. Here Frank attended school, later going to
Des Moines where he attended the school of pharmacy. After completing that course, he went back to
Elkader where he was employed in a drug store until he accepted a similar
position at Ossian, Iowa. It was there
that he met Miss Betty Emry and on June 27, 1897, they were united in marriage
and lived there until 1903. At that time
Mr. and Mrs. Merritt and daughter, Ruth, moved to Arnolds Park and had the
first drug store in that place. The
following year they sold the stock in the store and moved to Milford where Mr.
Merritt worked for several years for G.B. Bender. He then took over the drug store and with the
assistance of Mrs. Merritt, who had always helped in the store, continued to
operate at the same old stand on Main street.
About 15 years ago they consolidated with the Poland Drug Co. and Mr.
Merritt continued to work in the store until the time of his illness. After the death of Spence Poland the store
was sold to H.J. Tierney of Pocahontas, who has been here about eight years.
Mr. Merritt is
survived by his widow, Betty; two daughters, Mrs. Ruth Waring, at home, and
Mrs. P.C. (Bernadine) Mackey of 2000 Wellesley Ave., St. Paul, Minn.; a
three-year-old grand-daughter, Patricia Ann Mackey, his son-in-law, P.C.
Mackey; one brother, James Merritt of Seattle, Wash., a nephew in service in
France, and his stepmother, Mrs. Ella H. Merritt of Los Angeles, Calif.
A more complete
obituary will be printed next week.
Funeral services
will be held Friday afternoon at two o'clock at the Methodist Church with
Leyson Funeral directors in charge of the arrangements. The Rev. J.O. Smith, pastor of the Federated
church, will oficiate and will be followed by a Masonic service, which will be
given at the church because of the cold weather.
Mr. and Mrs.
Mackey and little daughter arrived early Wednesday morning to be with Mrs.
Merritt and Ruth, and a sister of Mrs. Merritt, Mrs. William Tobiason, will
arrive from Decorah this evening.
Mrs. Merritt
mourns the loss of a brother, George E. Emry, of Independence, who died Sunday,
Dec. 24, 1944. She was not able to
attend his funeral services.
-----------
Frank H. Merritt
Tribute to Frank
H. Merritt (By E.E. Heldridge)
The hand of death
has been laid heavily upon many of our good men in Milford of late and has left
many heavy hearts of dewy eyes. This is
the fate of mankind -- we are born but to die.
However, death is always sad, no matter when it comes.
In the passing of
Frank H. Merritt, the community has lost one of its best and most worthy
citizens. The writer had known Frank
before he came to Milford years ago. He
was a kindly man and was a friend to all mankind. He was generous to a fault and nearly every
person in the community can recall some kind and at the same time insignificant
act. How many times have I been in the
store when someone came in and asked Frank to wrap a package to be sent by
mail. Frank always did it, smilingly and efficiently. He would put aside work at any time to help,
even in such small matters as related.
He was always doing good to someone.
He was so cheerful about it that one does not remember it until he is
gone. His cheerful greeting in the
morning gave the day a blessing, it seemed.
He never said an unkind word to or about anyone. In times of stress, he never reviled those
who had disagreed with him, but went peacefully on his way of spreading cheer
and doing acts of kindness.
His home life was
all that anyone could ask, for no home ever had a better husband or
father. Here he will be greatly
missed. Frank was mayor of Milford
during those strenuous times, when the paving was done in this town and during
the establishment of the municipal electric light plant. During those times the office had much to do
and much depended upon the way it was done, but Frank came through with honor
to himself and to the town.
He was honest,
loyal, capable and kind. That is the
best one can say about any man.
"His work was not done, but his column is broken; his death was
untimely and his brethern mourn."
------
Frank Kryder
Hoover (biography from the Hoover Company)
(1854-1931)
Third son of
Daniel and Mary Hoover, born on his father's farm on the Hartville Road [New
Berlin, Ohio] January 19, 1854 and died March 6, 1931 [age 76 years] in
Chicago, Ill.
He was a graduate
of Mt. Union College at Alliance and later president of the Hoover and Mason
Phosphate Co., Chicago, and a director of The Hoover Company.
Effie Laura Phelps
Hoover
Married September
6, 1883 to Effie Laura Phelps, daughter of James Carlin Turner Phelps and Anna
Elizabeth (Swingely) Phelps of Kansas City, Mo.
She was born March 17, 1860.
[She died
September 5, 1944, Chicago, Ill.].
They were parents
of two sons:
Ray Phelps
Hoover, born June 3, 1885 in Kansas City [died October 19, 1968, Evanston,
Ill.], and later associated with his father in the Hoover and Mason Phosphate
Co.
He was married in
1921 to Mrs. Zollie Zenor Williams.
Howard Earl Hoover,
[known as H. Earl Hoover] born December 12, 1890, [at 1420 Belleview Avenue] in
Kansas City.
[and died
Highland Park, Ill., Nov. 13, 1985, aged 94].
Graduate of the
University of Michigan (1912) [with his cousin Charles Phelps Cushing] in
engineering and associated with his father in the Hoover-Mason Phosphate Co.,
and then The Hoover Company from 1914 until his retirement as chairman in 1956
and as director in 1974.
Marrie Dorothy
May White of Chicago, daughter of A. Stamford and Florence Rosetta White on
February 14, 1914.
They were parents
of two sons: John Alfred, born May 1, 1919, and died June 1919. Gordon Earl, son by adoption, born September
1, 1919.
They were
divorced December 29, 1929 and on January 29, 1931, he married Mrs. (Dorothy)
John J. Cleary, Jr., who was the mother of two sons, John J. Cleary III, born
July 1925; and Robert Higgs Cleary, born July, 1928.
They are the
parents of H. Earl, Jr., born April 18, 1933.
[He divorced her
on August 3, 1951]
[He married
third, Miriam F. Ulvinen, October 2, 1951 in Denver, Colorado; she was born on
November 1, 1913. "I never knew what happiness was before October 2,
l951", he wrote.]
-------
Chicago Tribune
Section 2, page 10, Friday, November 15, 1985
H. Earl Hoover
H. Earl Hoover,
94, vacuum firm chairman
A memorial
service for H. Earl Hoover, retired businessman, civic leader and
philanthropist, will be a 4 p.m. Saturday in St. James the Less Episcopal
Church, 550 Sunset Ridge Rd. Northfield.
Mr. Hoover, 94, of Glencoe, died Wednesday in Highland Park Hospital.
Mr. Hoover was
the former chairman of Hoover Co., vacuum cleaner manufacturer, with
headquarters in North Canton, Ohio. He
retired as chairman and honorary director of the company in 1974. He was nephew of the company's founder, W.H.
Hoover. A native of Kansas City, Mo.,
Mr. Hoover was an engineering graduate of the University of Michigan who began
his professional career in the Hoover-Mason Phosphate Co. before becoming
associated in 1914 with the Hoover Suction Sweeper Co.
Mr. Hoover
developed many patents for the suction sweeper.
along with other design details, and through his efforts helped make
famous the Hoover slogan of "It beats as it sweeps, as it cleans."
He was a former
chairman of the Industrial Research Institute, a member of the American Society
of Mechanical Engineers and active in other professional organizations.
For years he had
been active in the Boy Scouts, was a recipient of the Scouts' Silver Beaver
Award and was instrumental in establishing a scout camp at Yorkville, Ill.
He had been a
governing member of the Orchestral Association, parent body of the Chicago
Symphony; founder, director and fellow of the Palm Springs, Calif. Desert
Museum and founder and life member of the Living Desert Association.
Mr. Hoover also
was a life trustee of Episcopal Charities, Lawrence Hall School for Boys,
Highland Park Hospital, American Philanthropic Society, Photographic Society of
America, Art Institute of Chicago, Field Museum of Natural History, Friends of
the Glencoe Public Library, Glencoe Historical Society, Palm Springs Historical
Society and the H. Earl Hoover Foundation.
Mr. Hoover was
the recipient of the Distinguished Christian Service Award in 1982 from Seabury
Western Theological Seminary.
He is survived by
his wife, Miriam; and four sons, Gordon, John, Robert, and H. Earl II.
----------
The New York
Times, Tuesday, August 14, 1973, p. 36
Charles Cushing
Photographer, 88
Charles Phelps
Cushing, photographer, photographer's agent and writer, whose interest in
Americana led him to photograph more than 500 Main Streets, died yesterday at
his home, 2440 Sedgwick Avenue, the Bronx.
His age was 88.
Main Streets were
only one of the many subjects Mr. Cushing photographed in his more than half a
century as pictorial Boswell. Jacob
Deschin, former photography editor of The New York Times, wrote of him:
"Name the
city or the town, and what subject you want in it, and the chances are good
that 'Cush,' as his friends call him, has a picture of it somewhere in his huge
stock file of more than a quarter of a million prints, or knows where he can
lay hands on it."
His file of
American community life became a valuable source for illustrating histories and
textbooks and served the needs of newspapers, magazines, and other
publications. He also collected steel
engravings and served as agent for a dozen or more photographers.
Wrote on Nonfiction.
He was the author
of "If You Don't Write Fiction," which advised beginners to try
writing articles and suggested that chances of selling could be enhanced when a
manuscript was accompanied by photographs.
The book included pointers on how to learn quickly the fundamentals of
handling a camera.
Mr. Cushing had
recently completed two books, not yet published. One is a historical work on the Ozarks region
and the other a juvenile, entitled "Lafayette: Young Revolutionist." His articles and photographs had appeared in
many periodicals, going back to Leslie's Weekly. For The New York Times the subjects of his
articles ranged from photography through movies to travel.
Among his
innovations were pictures taken against the sun and moon, thus violating a
canon of the photographic art.
Photomontage, present several photographs on one mounting, was another
Cushing specialty.
Mr. Cushing was
born Oct. 21, 1884, in Mendota, Ill. He
graduated in 1907 from the University of Michigan, where he was a member of Phi
Beta Kappa, and joined The Kansas City Star as a cub reporter.
Served Collier's
Two years later
he became an editor on the staff of the Literary Digest, and afterward was
picture editor of Collier's.
As a first
lieutenant in the Marine Corps during World War I, he helped organize Stars and
Stripes, the servicemen's newspaper, held the post of managing editor, and
later served as a front-line correspondent for the paper. he wound up his wartime service as photo
editor for the American Expeditionary Forces, in charge of selecting pictures
for publication in the United States.
In the midst of a
successful writing career, Mr. Cushing decided he liked photography so much
better that in 1931 he began to specialize in it.
His widow and
chief assistant, the former Alice Campbell, survives.
A funeral service
will be held Thursday at 10 A.M. at Walter B. Cooke, Jerome Avenue and 190th
Street, the Bronx.
[Both Mr. Cushing
and Mr. Hoover were at Univ. of Michigan together]
Frank N.
Phelps
FRANK N. PHELPS. - One of the most energetic
and progressive business men of Kansas City, Missouri, Frank N. Phelps,
treasurer of the Phelps Stone and Supply Company, of which he was practically
the originator, has contributed appreciably towards the advancement of the
industrial interests of this section of Wyandotte county, and won for himself
an assured position in business circles. The only living son of the late James
Carlin Turner Phelps, he was born December 10, 1857, in Polo, Ogle county,
Illinois, of pioneer ancestry. His grandfather, John Phelps, married, March 14,
1816, in Tennessee, Sarah Rogan Carlin, and in 1819 moved with his family to
Illinois, becoming one of the original householders of Oregon, Ogle county, and
an important factor in its settlement.
Born at Lebanon, Tennessee, June 17, 1818,
James C. T. Phelps was but a year old when his parents located in Illinois. He
grew up amid pioneer scenes and was a grown man before he had any educational
advantages. At that time Governor Ford, then a young attorney but afterward
governor of the state, became an inmate of the Phelps household, and during the
long winter evenings taught James the fundamental studies and conditions of the
day. When twenty-five years old, or thereabouts, James C. T. Phelps began life
on his own account, forming a partnership with his brother-in-law and opening a
general store in Polo, Illinois, becoming head of the firm of Phelps &
Johnson. Succeeding even beyond their most sanguine expectations, this enterprising
firm subsequently established and operated many other business propositions,
among others opening three stores in Texas, and at Austin they owned a very
fine business block, Mr. Johnston having charge of the stores in the south,
while the senior partner superintended the management of those in the north,
having his headquarters in Polo. The firm also had other interests of
importance, carrying on banking and operating large grain elevators in
Illinois. During the thirty years this company was in business it accumulated
extensive holdings in town and city property and in wild lands, and on the
dissolution of the firm each member received property of great value. On
retiring from mercantile pursuits, he was persuaded by his son, Frank N.
Phelps, to move to Kansas City, Missouri, to live, and in the beautiful twenty-thousand-dollar
home which he built on Graystone Heights he spent his last days, passing away
December 24, 1895. Fraternally he stood high in the Masonic order, and in his
religious beliefs he was a Unitarian.
James C. T. Phelps married December 21, 1847,
Anna E. Swingley, who was born in Maryland, a daughter of Captain Nathaniel and
Elizabeth (Sharer) Swingley, and to them ten children were born. The death of
the mother of these children occurred January 17, 1896, and both she and her
husband are buried in Kansas City, Missouri, in that beautiful "city of
the dead," Elmwood Cemetery.
Having obtained his elementary education in
the public schools of Ogle county, Illinois, Frank N. Phelps continued his
studies at the Rock River Seminary, in Mount Morris, Illinois, after which he
studied pharmacy at Ann Arbor, Michigan, and attended the School of Mines,
although, on account of his health, he did not complete the course. A year or
two after attaining his majority, he planned to embark in business with his
father, and the two prospected in different parts of the west, seeking a
favorable location, finally deciding to settle in Wellington, Kansas. Unable,
however, to make satisfactory arrangements in regard to renting a business
place, the son proceeded in the fall of 1880, to Kansas City, Missouri, where
he located permanently. Mr. Phelps soon followed. On coming to this city Frank
N. Phelps bought a half interest in a shoe factory, becoming head of the firm
of Phelps & Hahn. A year later, on June 17, 1882, a disastrous cyclone
swept through this part of the country and completely wiped away his
manufacturing plant. The firm made another brave start, but soon after sold all
of its machinery and equipments to a Fort Leavenworth shoe manufacturer.
Mr. Phelps then embarked in the wholesale
fruit and commission business in Kansas City, Missouri, for two years being
associated with the firm of Blossom & Phelps. Selling out then, he was for
a year in the produce commission business as senior member of the firm of
Phelps & Smeltzer, selling out at the end of twelve months to his partner,
who later acquired fame as the "Celery King" of the great west. Mr.
Phelps was afterward engaged in handling real estate and all kinds of tax
securities, carrying on a substantial business until after the death of his
parents.
Mr. Phelps having originated the idea of
forming a stone and supply company, formed a corporation with his five sisters,
Mrs. Ella L. Fridley, Mrs. Effie L. Hoover, Mrs. Ada C. Cushing, Mrs. Anna M.
Wood and Mrs. Gertrude P. Hunie, and Mr. B. C. Beed, the only person outside of
the Phelps family, and was instrumental in organizing the Phelps Stone &
Supply Company, locating the plant at the state line, near Rosedale. The
company was incorporated September 22, 1904, with a capital of $45,000, which
has since been increased to $67,000, the officers being as follows: Frank K.
Hoover, president; W. E. Cushing, vice president and secretary; Frank N.
Phelps, treasurer; and Harry J. Nicholas, of whom a brief sketch appears
elsewhere in this volume, manager.
This company at first bought thirteen and
one-half acres of land on the hill adjoining the Dietz Hill, the place being
now known as Graystone Heights, but adjacent land has since been purchased, its
acreage now being twenty-one acres. An extensive and profitable business has
been built up by the company, its crushing stone plant having a capacity of
three hundred cubic yards per day, and its actual output for the year 1910 was,
approximately, forty thousand cubic yards of crushed stone, which was delivered
as per contract. In carrying on this work the firm employs on an average forty
teams and forty-five men at the plant, the business being transacted at the
office, which is located on the property.
The part of the country in which Mr. Phelps
lives was formerly the happy hunting ground of the Indians, the tribe of
Wyandots, thousands in numbers having their villages, made of tepees, on the
present site of the village of Kansas City, Kansas. A short distance from the
home of Mr. Phelps, on the hill lying on the Kansas City, Missouri, line, the
American Fur Trading Company located its post, having a stockade and a log
fort. It was illegal to sell liquor to the Indians, but ways were then found,
even as now, to evade the law, a post being set in the ground and on that a
pole was so inverted that it would revolve. The Indian desirous of obtaining
liquor would tie his skins on one end of the pole, while the traders tied the
liquor to the other end, and as the pole swung around the articles were
exchanged. In excavating for the Phelps residence the workmen found the grave
of an old Indian chief, who had been buried there, surrounded by his implements
of war.
Many years ago James C. T. Phelps purchased a
stock of goods in his native home state, Illinois, took them down the
Mississippi and up the Missouri river to Weston, Missouri, which was a great
stocking place for the prairie schooner trains taking loads of emigrants
overland to the California gold fields. He made money in the venture, but did
not return with a second stock. For many generations this branch of the Phelps
family has been prominent wherever located. As a pioneer of northern Illinois,
John Phelps, grandfather of Frank N., did much towards the settlement of Ogle
county, and had the distinction of having laid out the beautiful little city of
Oregon. The family is an old and honored one, a genealogical record published
within a few years giving its history back to the eleventh century.
Frank N. Phelps married, in Logan, Iowa,
September 8, 1897, Eleanor W. Wood, who was born in Magnolia, Iowa, a daughter
of John and Eliza (Hopkins) Wood. Mr. and Mrs. Phelps have one child, Frank N.
Phelps, Jr., whose birth occurred March 22, 1906.
Transcribed from History of Wyandotte County Kansas and
its people ed. and comp. by Perl W. Morgan. Chicago, The Lewis
publishing company, 1911. 2 v. front., illus., plates, ports., fold. map. 28
cm. [Vol. 2 contains biographical data. Paged continuously.]
Grandson Courtney Edward Phelps (1943-2010, Vietnam Veteran, Air
Force; Eleanor Virginia Wood (1912-1980;,
Frank N Phelps, Jr. (1906-1988) WWII veteran, Army.
Frank Phelps, Jr., shared his father’s autobiographical statement
with Gordon Merritt, compiler.
Copyyright 2021.
No comments:
Post a Comment