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Note: William “Bill” John Phillips b.24 Nov 1876 Coboconk d.17 Apr 1965 Coboconk. Died of Old Age at 89 yrs old at home. Build... He was thin man of about 5 foot 2 inches tall, brown hair & eyes. Of good humor. Always had a cat. Never smoked, drank a beer once in a while. Always chewed chewing tobacco. Religion... Lived all his life in Coboconk. He was baptized in the Coboconk Christ Church, later renamed as the Coboconk Methodist Church, in 1925 The Congregations of the Presbyterian & the Methodist Church's combined and renamed their new church "The United Church Of Canada" (the original church building is located on the south side of the Gull River 2011). Marriage... 2 June 1902 he married Ada Althea Aifretta Routley at the Coboconk Christ Church. She was born on 17 Apr 1884 in Coboconk. Their Home: About 1902 he brought the 2 last lots on the west end of Front Street, Coboconk on the north side of the Gull River next to the town dock & swimming area. Here he built a home & barn/woodshed on the east lot. On the west he always had a very large garden & a large flower bed in front & beside his home. He kept working at them till his death. Raised pigs & chickens for many years to sell as well as for family use. For a few years he owned a very large sow (female pig) which his children would ride to school in the morning & home at night. It got to know when to leave home & go to the school to pick up the children. The Coboconk School was on the opposite side of the street 2 blocks to the east. Location... 44degrees 39' 17.06" N, 78 Degrees 48" 06.00" W. 1965 Bea & her sister Monetta Phillips-Outram brought the family home from their father William Bill's estate & rented it out for a few years. Then they had their brother's Cecil & Roy tear it down & build a 2 floor, 4 apartment house on the property. They sold it in the mid 1970. Children... They had 8 children: 6 boys & 2 girls. Their 5th son John Lawrence Phillips b.17 Apr 1908 d.30 May 1908 in Coboconk. NOTE! On his parents tome stone. Drowned in the Mill Pond while walking to school. His Wife Ada's Death... 26 October 1918 His wife Ada died of the world wide influenza out brake. Hundred of thousands died from it. His mother Margaret died on 17 May 1918 from it. Their youngest child Monetta was 4 years old. He never remarried, though he had many live in house keepers over the years. Between house keepers & his daughter Bea looked after him. His daughter Bea was 13 when she took over the responsibilities of raising the family which comprised of... their father William “Bill” John Phillips, brother's Cleveland Osborne “Phil or OC” 16, William Burton “Burt” 15, Clinton Roddis “Rod” 9, Cecil 7 & sister Monetta Dorathea “Mon or Buddy” 4yrs old. The 2 older boys where working away from home in the logging camps most of the time. Their father was a Mill Wright working at the mill in town owned by the Gull River Lumber Company. When Monetta was old enough to help out at their brother Phil's resort, Driftwood Lodge on Balsam Lake, Bea & her would go there for the summer to work. Bea did this till Monetta was 16, then she left for college. 1918 Oct He brought Cemetery Lot "Coboconk, Ontario & finished paying for it on 7 Sept 1919. Received from William Phillips the sum of ten dollars $10.00. Being full payment for Lot No. 2 in Range A in Coboconk Cemetery. Signed John J. Millipam Care Taker for Bexley Council." SOURCE: His Grandson Don Outram has this piece of lined paper that it is written on. Education & Employment... He only had grade 3 education (said he didn't like the teacher so quit) then went to work for is father John Read Phillips who owned & operated “the J.R. Phillips Saw Mill” & J.R. “Phillips Planning Mills” (2 separate mills. first mills built in Coboconk.) located on the north side of the Mill Pond. Just north & below the cemetery. The Coboconk Royal Canadian Legion is now built on this property (2006). Bill learned the trade of a “Mill Wright” & did this all of his working life. After his father's death in 1907 the company was sold to The Gull River Lumber Company who he worked for till he retired. His father John Read Phillips helped his son Joseph Henry Phillips (Bill's brother) to build his own lumber mill in Kinmount, Ontario. Canada First saw mill located just north of the town of Kinmount on the Burnt/Irondale River, (the Austin family soon after built their mill south of the dam in Kinmount) called "J. H. Phillips Saw Mill", after his death it went to his son Rosslyn Rumney Phillips. J.R. Phillips Boat... Bill’s father John Read Phillips had a Side Wheeler or Paddle Wheel Boat driven by a large steam engine, which was used to pull the logs-booms to his mill in Coboconk from Balsam Lake & up the Gull River. The boat was sold to a Toronto firm and delivered by rail after 1907. A log boom was made up of a lot of logs chained end to end & both ends attached together with a long chain attaching them to the back of the boat towing them. Inside of the boom where hundred’s of logs cut to length & ready for the mill. They would tow them into the mill pond then open the boom at one end & pull the logs that where chained together back out into the river & leaving the saw logs in the pond. Then it would be towed back to Balsam Lake to be refilled with more logs which were cut along the shores of the lake. The men used 14 foot long pipe poles to sort (long wooden pole with a steel point on one end) & separate the logs & guide them to & up the Jack Chain Winch to pull them up into the mill. About 1921 his home burnt down. With the help of his son’s he built a new one on the same spot. When he died his 2 daughters, Bea & Monetta brought the home from the estate & rented it out for a few years, then had their brother’s Cecil & Roy tear it down & build a 2 floor, 4 apartment house on the property. They sold it in the mid 70’s. His boat “Miss Althea... 1921 Bill built a steam boat with help of son Royal (Roy) at their home in Coboconk. Named the boat "Miss Althea" after his wife Ada Althea Routley. Brought the lumber to build it from Sam Bryant of Norland, Ontario. It was built in the woodshed 24ft. long, 7 feet wide. They took out the end of shed to get it out, and rolled it on wooden rollers to the river. He took the train to Toronto to buy the a steam boiler, engine & fittings for it. Then had it shipped to Coboconk. It was driven by propeller, steering it with an oar attached to the stein of the boat. Him & his sons use to take it down the Gull River to cut wood for the Lime Stone Chemical Plant in Coboconk & to pull sunken logs up from the bottom of the Gull river. They then sold logs to The Gull River Lumber Company of Coboconk. The boat ended up at Cedar Villa Lodge on the east shore of Balsam Lake, which his son Cecil had built & operated till his death where it just rotted away. His grandson Jack Outram has the brass whistle off it. He liked to tell us this story... That he was the first person to spend time in the new Coboconk lime stone Jail House (finished in 1884). The story goes that as he was walking home from the his father's mill when he was invited by the town policeman to look at the new jail that had just been finished that afternoon. Stepping inside this single small one room jail, the officer shut the bared jail door & locked it so grandpa could feel what it was like to be locked up. Just as he did this someone called from across the street about a robbery at Shield’s General Store that was right across the street on the corner next to the Paddie House. So off ran the policeman (I believe they called him “Robbie”) leaving poor grandpa Bill locked in the jail house for over an hour. As Bill’s friends pasted the jail & seeing Bill locked up they all made a big joke about Bill being the first man to be locked up in the new jail. Some of the younger children asked what he'd done wrong? After they stop using it as a jail & it was used as a small store till 1992, after that it sat empty for sometime, then in 2006 it was used as an information booth for a few years during the summer. It was the Smallest Jail ever built & used in Ontario. It had one bared window & a door with a weather cover hinged on the outside for each. It is located on north side of the Gull River & on the west side of Hwy 35, 1 building in from the bridge. Coboconk Phone Company... When the Coboconk Phone Company started he was one of the first to sign up for a phone. In the new home the phone hung in the kitchen by the back door. It was a large wall mounted oak one (about 30 inches high by 14 inches wide) with a long large mouth piece sticking out from it to talk into & a hand held receiver on a long wire that you put up to your ear to listen with. You had to use the hand crank to get the operator. It also had a book rack near the bottom of it to hold the open phone book & 2 large silver bells on the top. This phone was in use up till the 1960’s when Bell Canada took over. It was still in the house when he died. I don't know what became of it. The Coboconk Cemetery... At the west end of Front Street it turns to the north one block then east again (makes a loop). On the north side of this street is the Coboconk Cemetery. You could look out Grandpa’s bedroom window and see the cemetery. Grandpa Bill Phillips had a story that he use to like telling his grandchildren about that happened in the cemetery; One moon lit warm summer night years before the undertakes started to embalm dead people before they were buried. This quite well to do lady was buried. Just after everybody was in bed the neighborhood was awaken by a load screaming noise. It seemed to becoming from the cemetery. Grandpa Bill said he jump out of bed pulled on his pants, lit a coal oil lamp & dashed outside, just as 2 men ran pass him coming from the cemetery & down Front Street. He along with some other men headed for the cemetery where the screaming was still coming from. Once there they found a lady screaming & trying to climb out of a freshly dug grave. By all accounts she must have gone into a comma that morning & it being a hot day her family & local doctor thought that she had died. So that afternoon they had a funnel for her & buried her. Now someone saw the rings she was being buried with, so that night decided to come to the cemetery & dig up the body to steal them. He said that it looked like the grave robbers had tried to pull the rings off over her finger with no success. So they being in a hurry decided to cut her fingers off with a jack knife. Once a finger was cut off the blood started to flow, and with that the lady sat up scaring off the would be grave robbers. Then when she realized where she was she start to scream for help. Grandpa Bill said that this happened sometimes, that people were buried alive. But this was the first time that he could remember of a person being unburied alive. He said that the grave robbers use to wait a night or two before attempting to dig a body up to steal what had been buried with them so they could trade or sell the stolen items. And after they did either the grounds keeper or someone else would find the unearthed grave the next morning. And that sometimes on the inside of the lid there would be fingernail marks, as if the buried person had come back to life and had tried to claw their way out of the coffin. He also told us that after this happened, if a family was uncertain if the person were dead or not they would put a heavy string around one finger or a hand and up through a hole in the lid to the surface of the grave, to this they would attach a small bell. Then they would pay someone that was not afraid to be in a cemetery at night, besides sitting beside a newly dug grave with a shovel & to listen for the tinkle of the bell. If it rang they knew that the person was a live so they quickly dug down to the coffin & and broke a hole in the lid to let air in. Then they would pull the person out. He told us that usually the only men that would not be afraid of being in a cemetery after dark where the grave robbers. So these guys where winners either way. Most people where afraid to be in a cemetery after sunset therefore most family members wouldn’t do it. This went for the undertaker & ground keeper as well. Ghost you know….. Weird things where said to take place in all cemeteries after dark! SOURCE: Himself, & his daughters Bea & Monetta Phillips to... Compiled by Don Outram 13012 CR 503 Tory Hill Ontario Canada K0L 2Y0 don_outram@hotmail.com 2011
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