William A. Phillips

William Addison Phillips
William Addison Phillips
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives; from Kansas's At-large district
	In office; March 4, 1873 – March 3, 1875
Preceded by	David Perley Lowe
Succeeded by	Seat redistricted as 1st District
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives; from Kansas's 1st district
	In office; March 4, 1875 – March 3, 1879
Preceded by	Redistricted from At-large district
Succeeded by	John Alexander Anderson
Member of the Kansas House of Representatives
	In office; 1865
Personal details
Born	January 14, 1824; Paisley, Scotland
Died	November 30, 1893 (aged 69); Fort Gibson, Oklahoma
Resting place	Salina, Kansas
Political party	Republican
Signature
Military service
Allegiance	United States
Branch/service	Union Army
Years of service	1862–1865
Rank	Colonel
Unit	3rd Indian Home Guard
Battles/wars	American Civil War Battle of Old Fort Wayne; Battle of Cane Hill; Battle of Prairie Grove; Battle of Fort Gibson; Battle of Honey Springs;

William Addison Phillips (1824-1893) was a Free-State Abolitionist journalist during the "Bleeding Kansas" period. He also served in the Civil War, ending the war as a colonel.

Biography

Born in Paisley, Scotland, Phillips attended the common schools of Paisley. He immigrated to the United States in 1838 with his parents, who settled in Randolph County, Illinois. He engaged in agricultural pursuits. He was employed as a newspaper correspondent 1845–1862. He studied law. He was admitted to the bar in 1855 and commenced practice in Lawrence, Kansas, working also as a correspondent for the New York Tribune. He was first justice of the Kansas Supreme Court under the Leavenworth Constitution. In 1858, he settled and founded the city of Salina, Kansas with a wagon circle against constant threat by hostile tribes.^[1]^[2] During the American Civil War, though offered a large sum to be a correspondent at the front, he entered the Union Army as a volunteer, and raised some of the first troops in Kansas in 1861. He was a major in the 1st Indian Home Guard. He was promoted to colonel and served as commander of the Cherokee Indian Regiment in the 3rd Indian Home Guard.^[3] He served as prosecuting attorney of Cherokee County in 1865. He served in the state House of Representatives in 1865.

He was elected as a Republican to the Forty-third, Forty-fourth, and Forty-fifth Congresses (March 4, 1873 – March 3, 1879). He was an unsuccessful candidate for renomination in 1878. After leaving Congress, he was attorney for the Cherokee Indians at Washington, D.C. He was an unsuccessful candidate for election to Congress in 1890. He died at Fort Gibson, Muskogee County, Indian Territory (now Oklahoma), November 30, 1893. He was interred in Gypsum Hill Cemetery, Salina, Kansas.

The city of Phillipsburg, Kansas was named in honor William A. Phillips.

References

^ Lichti, Carol (February 25, 1996). "On Hallowed Ground : Story of Indian Rock and Lakewood". The Salina Journal. Salina, Kansas. p. 47. Retrieved December 1, 2021 – via Newspapers.com. As news of the battle spread, the potential for settlement lured Phillips, who was in Lawrence, to return to the area where Salina would be founded.
^ "Salina History". City of Salina, Kansas. Archived from the original on March 5, 2014. Retrieved March 5, 2014.
^ "William Addison Phillips". Kansas Historical Society. Retrieved April 10, 2022.

Bibliography

United States Congress. "William A. Phillips (id: P000315)". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.
Kansas cyclopedia
Rines, George Edwin, ed. (1920). "Phillips, William Addison" . Encyclopedia Americana.

External links

William A. Phillips at Find a Grave

This article incorporates public domain material from the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress

U.S. House of Representatives			Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Kansas's at-large congressional district 1873–1875	Incumbent
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Kansas's 1st congressional district 1875–1879	Succeeded by John A. Anderson