Dr. Josiah L. and Hattie Phillips

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Dr. Josiah L. and Hattie Phillips

BY WAYNE FANEBUST

Dr. Josiah L. Phillips was born in Maine, in 1835. His father was a doctor and Josiah wanted to join him in that profession. So he went to Illinois and graduated from the Rush Medical College in Chicago at the age of 21. He moved to Dubuque, Iowa, where he joined a group of businessmen that formed a town site entity known as the Western Town Company, for the purpose of creating a town at the Falls of the Big Sioux River. The company was formed in October of 1856, and soon thereafter two men were dispatched to find the Falls and layout a town site.

Dr. Phillips and a party of men, including Wilmot W. Brookings, arrived at the Falls in August of 1857, and began the long, hard work of building a city from scratch, believing that settlers and merchants would come and join the enterprise. Just then the fabled Falls were part of Minnesota Territory, and as it turned out a group of speculators from St. Paul formed a company called the Dakota Land Company. These men had similar designs on the Falls, but when their party of men arrived at the roaring rapids, they discovered that their Dubuque rivals had claimed the big prize. Undaunted, the two groups decided to work together rather then fight over the matter.

Since there were so few people at the town site, Dr. Phillips was unable to maintain much of a medical practice. But in February of 1858, he responded to a terrible emergency and performed an amputation of the lower legs of his friend, Wilmot W. Brookings, whose lower extremities were frozen after a fall from his horse while crossing the Split Rock River, east of the town site. The crude surgery was done while the patient was lying on a buffalo robe in his dirt floor cabin. The surgery was successful and somehow Brookings survived and with wooden feet and a cane, continued with the work of town building.

After the Civil War broke out, Dr. Phillips offered his services to the Union Army. He was appointed to the position of surgeon of 16th Iowa Infantry, to do the work of patching up wounded soldiers, and of course amputations. The 16th Iowa served under General William T. Sherman and was a part of that general’s famous Georgia march from Atlanta to Savannah. Unfortunately, Dr.

Hattie and Her Seven Children

From left to right, Hattie’s children and their birth years are: Alice (1873), Abbie (1871), Rosie (1880), Charlie (1877), Josie (1883), mother Hattie, Flora (1875) and Annie (1868) Abbie (Abigail) was the first Euramerican child to be born in Sioux Falls, and Josie (Josephine) was born after the death of her father. Ca. 1890. Image Owner: Siouxland Heritage Museums.

Phillips suffered an injury to his eyes that would eventually force him to give up the practice of medicine.

He did, however, marry Hattie C. Daggett, in Texas in 1867. In the meantime, the Sioux Falls town site had been converted into a military installation called Fort Dakota. The couple and their daughter Annie returned to Sioux Falls in 1870, just as Fort Dakota was being closed down. They took up residence in officers’ quarters of the abandoned post. It would be their home for three years.

The buildings that made up Fort Dakota were situated on land claimed by Dr. Phillips, his 160 acre homestead. In the summer of 1870, the federal government held an auction to sell all the vermininfested buildings. Since they sat on Dr. Phillips’ land, the other men did not bid on the property, allowing the doctor to buy the buildings at a low price. He had agreed in advance to allow the settlers to occupy them rent free. Dr. Phillips then platted several blocks on what became Phillips Avenue from 6th Street to 9th Street and west to what is now Minnesota Avenue. Downtown Sioux Falls had its start.

Hattie Phillips immediately became a community leader in the rough frontier town of Sioux Falls. Along with a handful of other women, the doctor’s wife established the first Sunday School, but that was just the beginning: the History Club, the Children’s Home Society and the Women’s Christian Temperance Union were other organizations she helped to create and support. It was said that she, more than anyone else, was tireless in contributing time and energy to all the benevolent institutions of her town, thus transforming, over time, Sioux Falls from a crude state of affairs to a place of sophistication and style.

The Phillips family prospered as time went on. The doctor rarely made any calls due to his poor eyesight, but he didn’t have to make a living as a physician, for the path to wealth came about through the sale of real estate for homes and businesses. As downtown Sioux Falls grew in size, the Phillips family—that would eventually grow to six girls and one boy— cashed in. They lived in a nice house built at the corner of 11th Street and Phillips Avenue where the Boyce Greeley building now stands.

Phillips House

Residence of Mrs. H. C. Phillips

Residence of Mrs. H. C. Phillips

In addition to his business interest, Dr. Phillips took an interest in public affairs. He seemed destined to be a community leader and possibly hold political office. But on June 10, 1882, he fell ill, and after two days of suffering, he died at the age of 47, at his Phillips Avenue home. His unexpected death was a great shock to his family and friends.

Although denied the love and affection of her husband, Mattie moved forward. She built a hotel called the Phillips House on East 8th Street, near the bank of the Big Sioux River. It was larger than the city’s other hotels and proved to be a popular, well-patronized hotel.

She also undertook to build a new home for her family. For this she selected a lot on a bluff overlooking Covell Lake. Work on the house commenced in 1883, and when it was finished, Sioux Falls had a threestory Victorian home that was magnificent in every detail. The first two stories of the $50,000 mansion were made of quartzite stone, quarried locally, while the third story was made of wood. On the inside, finely detailed woodwork and gold-plated hardware, dazzled the eyes of visitors.

Hattie did more than provide a beautiful home for her children; she was making a statement. She was telling Sioux Falls that it was possible to live well and at the same time, respect others and promote and protect the entire community. Hattie lived in the house until the early 1900s. In 1909, a fire destroyed much of the top floor of the house. Although the remaining floors were restored, the house was eventually torn down. A oneof-a-kind house that should have persevered is gone, but Phillips Avenue will remain as a friendly reminder of a pioneer doctor and his conscientious wife.

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