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Note: her, Lorene, of Tillamook:
"Frank Phillips was born in Schoolcraft, Michigan on 17 May 1855. His mother died when he was 8 and his father when he was 15 --after they had moved to Marshalltown, Iowa. His father had remarried and there were two small children, besides his own brother and sister, to help support.
"During the summer of 1877, he went into the Black Hills, South Dakota (it was Dakota Territory at the time --NMS) to prospect for gold. Later, he hauled freight into Rapid City.
"By the late 1880's, he was in Alpena, South Dakota where he was teaching school. Among his pupils was Edith Arne, whom he later married 10 Dec. 1890. Zura Fern was born 22 Dec. 1891 and Almira Fawn 11 April 1893 and Flora Sylvia on 23 June 1897. During this time he was serving his first term as Alpena's first mayor in 1892. Three times he represented Jerauld County in Republican Conventions.
"In 1896 the family moved by train to Cottage Grove, Oregon. Edith's parents had already made the move. Verna Lee was born 22 June 1897 on a farm just east of Cottage Grove. In early 1898 they moved into town. They were there during the diphtheria epidemic --when all children wore little bags of asafetide on strings around their necks in hopes of preventing contagion. It must have worked.
"By 1900 they were in the house where they would live for the next 12 years. It was here that Zura died 9 Jan. 1900 of typhoid fever. Other members of the family suffered from lesser attacks of what was thought to be malaria and to have been caused by the drinking water.
"By 1902 Frank had established a hardware store in town. Later disposed of this and set up a real estate and insurance business across the river on Main Street. At least part of this time, he was in partnership with Frank Wheeler. Through these years Frank took an active part in community and civic affairs; was a member of the Methodist Church, the Masonic Lodge, the school board and the Commercial Club --a forerunner of the Chamber of Commerce.
"They were successful business years spent in buying, improving and selling or trading land and in writing life and fire insurance/ He erected a two-story brick structure known as the "Phillips Building" on Main Street, with two stores down stairs and several offices and a lodge hall or meeting room above. Later he was associated with the new bank which he helped establish.
"In the meantime, Frank and Edith had brought an architect up from Eugene to draw plans and supervise the remodeling of their house. It became one of the loveliest homes in Cottage Grove. They had many shade and fruit trees on the lot which was a complete block. There was also a vegetable garden. In the back of the block were the stables for the horses and barn for the cow and house for the chickens. Edith was active in church, Eastern Star and social affairs of town.
"In June 1911, Allie graduated from High School and started the University of Oregon that fall. On 19 Dec. 1911 Frank Rodney was born.
"By 1912 Cottage Grove seemed to be standing still in comparison to the growth in some other sections of the state. Reports were circulating about rising prices of land in Tillamook and Coos counties. Frank decided to sell his home and some other properties --keeping the Oak Lawn Pear Orchard with Claude Arne (his brother-in-law) as partner. The family moved to Tillamook in the fall. Finding it was impossible to find a house to rent, they bought a small one. Allie taught school and Flo and Verna went to High School. Frank found that land prices were already too high so, in the summer of 1913, he moved back to Cottage Grove and made plans to go to Coquille in the fall.
"They did move to Coquille and had a store in town. During that time, there was a fire and several buildings burned, including their home. They got out the oil paintings of William Taylor (Frank's step-grandfather) and Tamar Walker Phillips Taylor (Frank's grandmother), but lost the painting of Tamar's first husband, Ezra Phillips (Frank's grandfather). Flo remembers his having a bushy red beard. Later, they bought a dairy farm where the only transportation in or out was by boat. Rod rode the mail boat to school. Allie was living with them and teaching school and went with him. Flo had married Frank McKinley and moved to Tillamook. Verna had eloped with Bucky Mast and left home. the dairy farm proved unsuccessful so they moved back to the pear orchard farm in Cottage Grove. As far as money went, that, too, was unsuccessful. When Rod was in 7th grade they decided to move to Corvallis so he could go to college there. Times were hard and they even tried picking hops to earn a little more, but that didn't work either.
"Frank died 23 Aug. 1931 from cancer. Rod worked out pert of his funeral expenses by driving the family car for the funeral home from time to time. Edith lived in and ran the apartment house until her death 9 June 1940. Shortly after, the man who had furnished the mortgage money foreclosed and took the house back.
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Frank Phillips patented two parcels of land in Jerauld Co., South Dakota: 160 acres 31 May 1884 and another 160 acres 5 September 1891.
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History of Jerauld County, South Dakota (N.J. Drummond, 1910)
p. 174: "Frank B. Phillips was the regular teacher at the teasdale school house in the northeast corner of Dale Township. ..."
p. 359: "Frank Phillips lived for several years on the north half od 19--108--63, and secured title to it from the United States. ..."
Note: The following account comes from Bev (Phillips) Christensen and her mot
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