William Claiborne Phillips (1869 - 1912)

Born 19 May 1869 in Upshur, Texas, United States

Ancestors

Descendants

Died 28 Mar 1912 at age 42 in Gladewater, Texas, United States

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Biography

This biography was auto-generated by a GEDCOM import.^[1] It's a rough draft and needs to be edited.

Burial

Burial:

Date: Aft 28 Mar 1912

Place: Union Grove Cemetery, Upshur Co TX

Census

Census: Upshur County, Texas, Justice Precinct #7, Line 359-359, T623 Ross 1675

Date: 1900

Census: Coffeeville, Upshur County, Texas Precient 2

Date: 1870

Census: Gladewater, Upshur County, Texas

Date: 1880

Census: Gladewater, Upshur County, Texas

Date: 1910

Event

Event: No Military service

Type: Military

Sources

1. ↑ Phillips-11445 was created by Billie Girouard through the import of Edward Doty Descendants Only Not Entire Line.ged on Jan 8, 2015. This comment and citation can be deleted after the biography has been edited and primary sources are included.

• Date of birth taken from census records. death certificate and tombstone.
• Death Certificate in Phillips file.

Notes

Note NI126William's death certificate shows that he died on March 28, 1912 of Carditis L A Grippe, which is inflammation of the heart, and he was a farmer. The death certificate listed his father and mother, but there is no place on the certificate for his wife's name. The place of his death was Gregg Co, which is the Union Grove area where his grandparents lived. He had been attended by a doctor from 17 March until 28 March when he died. (I know where William's farm was and it was not in Union Grove. His farm was maybe two or three miles from downtown Gladewater out on the Gilmer Highway.)

I don't know anything about William Claiborne Phillips. I do not recall ever hearing any stories or accomplishments about him. He was the first child of Alfred Mason and Mary Holbert. I am pretty sure that what I call the Old Home Place (where Granny lived and died) was his part of the property willed to him when Mace died and then when William died IT was willed to his son Norbert. Norbert was only 13 when his daddy died so his mother continued to live there. Minnie Johnson, a granddaughter-in-law said that the house I remember was just part of William's old home place. That some of it had been torn down and the lumber used to build another house (somewhere ??). There was a water well several feet in front of the remaining part of the house and Minnie said that it used to be enclosed as part of the kitchen.

Ludie was 43 years old when her busband died and she had five children under age 17. Her oldest daughter Charlsie Myrtle, 20, had married James Crawford Johnson in 1906. The Johnson's lived in the Big Sandy area and were connected to the Sasser family, also of Big Sandy. Edwin, son of Myrtle and James was born 2 May 1907 and called William, Grandsir. Edwin was not quite 5 when William died so maybe he remembered that because he had been told that by his grandmother, Ludie, whom he called Granny.

The William Claiborne family apparently fell on hard times. I do not believe that there was a lot of farming on the property after William died. It is probable that James Crawford tried farming it some but he had his own farm to care for. Maybe it was rented out to tenant farmers.

James Johnson's (called Croff) father had died in 1892 and he and his two older brothers cared for their mother's farm until she sold it in 1905. James probably farmed Ludie's property until they moved to Ranger in early 1920.

I do not know any details on how the property was cared for. I know that James Crawford and Myrtle moved to Ranger, Texas after their youngest son, Altus was born 8 July 1920. They later moved on to Abilene where James Crawford farmed until he died on 14 May 1923 of complications from the flu. Myrtle then married 2nd to John Richard Stovall on 12 September 1925 in Abilene.

Ludie at some point lived in town in a house formerly owned by her in-laws Mase and Mary (Holbert) Phillips. Both had died in mid 1900's and Norbert was probably then the owner. In late 1930 we moved to Gladewater and lived in that town house with Granny. I have several pictures of family gatherings there.

Norbert died in 1939 and Granny then moved back to her former property and continued to live there off and on until she died in 1955.

Oil had been discovered in Gladewater. Housing was scarce for workers. Granny (or Norbert) rented rooms to oil workers and/or local officials. When we arrived in 1930 we were extremely fortunate to have family to stay with. Edwin worked in the oil rigs for a couple of years then we moved into a house at the "Phillips Springs" where he was caretaker/overseer of the property. We lived there until after the oil drilling at West Mountain started and then Edwin was sent there to be a pumper and we were furnished a company house.

Benjamin F Phillips, William's younger brother was the owner of several oil wells, none of which were drilled on their original property on the Gilmer Highway where William and Ludie lived.