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Continued: Fredrick Sylvanus Phillips was born 16 Sept. 1859 Schoolcraft, Kalamazoo County, Michigan, the third child of Edgar E. and Almira (Knapp) Phillips. His mother died when he was four years old. His father married a second time shortly thereafter, and Sylvia Almira (Paris) became Fred's stepmother. The family moved to Iowa about November or December 1865. Edgar Phillips died when Fred was about 11 years old.
Fred married Mary Elizabeth Whealen, daughter of Dr. George and Mary (Holmes) Whealen, on 3 February 1881 at Lamoille, Marshall County, Iowa. The young couple moved to Dakota Territory sometime where their second child, Forrest Volo, was born in 1883 in Letcher, Dakota Territory. Fred's brother, Frank, preceded Fred's family to the Dakotas.
Sadly, Fred and Mary's first son, George, was killed when he was less than four years old in 1885 in Alpena, Dakota Territory when a horse team was spooked and barrels rolled off a wagon onto him. Their third child, Florence Winona, was born in Alpena 25 Jan 1885. (Letcher is in what is now Southwest Sanborn Co. and Alpena is in Northeast Jerauld Co. in east-central South Dakota.)
Fred S. Phillips patented two parcels of land in what is now Jerauld County, South Dakota: 160 acres in the NE 1/4 of Sec. 13, Twp 108N, Range 64W (5th PM), filed in the Montana State Office 31 March 1884; and 160 acres in the SW 1/4 of Sec. 26, Twp. 108N, Range 65W (5th PM), in the Montana State Office 29 March 1888.
Fred Phillips was noted as one of the nine men who formed a baseball club in Alpena in 1889 (History of Jerauld County, South Dakota (N. J. Drummond, 1910), pp. 211-12). The year may be mistaken, as it appears that they moved to Washington in 1888.
The family moved to Washington Territory, traveling by train with five children. In a journal, dated 30 June 1912, Fred noted, "Mama and I looked up old records and figured that we arrived in Washington from South Dakota the 25th day of June 1888, having lived in Stevens County ever since." They first moved to Chewelah but only lived there for a short time because of "Indian troubles". They removed to Colville about 1891 where Frederick S. Phillips served as the County Clerk for Stevens County. By 1895, land west of the Columbia River (the Colville Indian Reservation side) was to be opened for homesteading. The family moved to Northport and pioneered that country, starting the Phillips Ranch.
Fred S. Phillips patented two parcels of land in Stevens County: 158.68 acres in Sec. 19, Twp. 40N, Range 40E (Willamette Meridian), patent no. 37025, application no. 377, cert. no. 211, Spokane Land Office, patent issued 28 December 1908, signed President Theodore Roosevelt by M.W. Young, sect'y; 35.92 acres in Sec. 30, Twp. 40N, Range 40E (Willamette Meridian), patent no. 39315, cert. no. 166, Spokane Land Office, signed 3 March 1909 President Theodore Roosevelt by M.W. Young, sect'y. Other family members also patented homesteads in the immediate area (including his children and their spouses, and Fred’s sister, Flora Beadel and some of her children, and Mary’s sister, Florence Whealen), and as they and other neighbors moved on, some of those properties were gradually consolidated.
For some years, Fred was the County Appriaser for northern Stevens County west of the Columbia River. He regularly supervised elections in his precinct, and an old ballot box that was used in elections held at Northport is in the possession of his great-great-grandson, Nick Sheedy.
The Phillips Ranch had orchards, large gardens and livestock. Fred also cut timber and produced railroad ties for the railroad. According to Uncle Mike (Fulton Holmes Phillips), as far as he knew, the Phillips family are the only original homesteaders to stay in the area; he said that most of the old families abandoned their steads, especially after hard times hit in the 1920s and 1930s.
A smelter at Nortport operated from 1897 until about 1910. After it ceased operations, another smelter to the north, at Trail, British Columbia, expanded its operations. By the 1920s, the trail smelter was causing a great deal of damage to the water and air quality of the upper Columbia River basin. The pollution killed some livestock and crops and also caused significant deforestation in the area, including on the Phillips Ranch. The family was forced to move for a time to Troy in Latah County, Idaho -- about fifteen miles west of Moscow.
At that time, Fred's son-in-law, Robin C. Sheedy, resided in Washington, D. C. while supervising the construction of the Arlington National Memorial Bridge. R.C. Sheedy wrote a letter about the situation, and delivered it Dr. Ray Lyman Wilbur who was a cousin of Fred's wife, Mary (Whealen) Phillips. Dr. Wilbur was for many years the President of Stanford University, but by 1928 he served as President Hoover's Secretary of the Interior. In that capacity, Ray Lyman Wilber took up the cause and the U.S. entered into negotiations with Canadian officials. After an international agreement and lawsuits, compensation was secured for some of the damage that was caused by the Trail smelter, and the facility was shut down until pollution could be reduced. It was one of the first international environmental agreements.
Fredrick S. Phillips kept a daily journal for many years and it provides great insight into his personality, sense of humor, and dedication to his family. Fred kept cattle, churned butter daily, cut timber, firewood and hay, and cultivated orchards and large gardens.
My grandfather, Carl Sheedy, and my grand-uncle Forrest Sheedy, recalled that their grandfather was a musical man and entertained them by singing and playing the fiddle and jew’s harp. His old jew’s harp is now in the possession of Nick Sheedy, given to him by Forrest Sheedy who retired back to part the Phillips Ranch and made his home next to the old homestead where uncle Mike (Fulton) and Chic Phillips lived for many years.
Fred's wife, (whom he called "May" and "Mama"), was somewhat of an invalid much of her life. Her sister, "Aunt" Florence Whealen, helped care for the children and lived with the family for many years. "Aunt" had a Green parrot, "Polly", who was much beloved and could recite the entire Lord's Prayer.
Fredrick Sylvanus Phillips died of pneumonia in his eightieth year, 19 February 1939, on the Phillips Ranch near Nortport. He left eight children who were grown and married by then. Mary survived him by eight years and lived part of that time with her sister Florence in Pasadena, California. Mary died at the home of their daughter Florence Winona (Phillips) and her husband R. C. Sheedy in Rainier, Oregon, in 1947.
Fred and Mary Phillips' bodies were cremated and the ashes are deposited in a mausoleum at Riverside Cemetery in Spokane, Washington.
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