Feature Sponsor: From Dirt to Silver Dollars

Work Ethic & Determination Led to Phillips’ Success

by Lori Roll

The story of Frank F. Phillips’ meteoric rise from dirt farmer to international oil titan illustrates his fierce work ethic, his drive to realize childhood dreams and his desire to help the community that made him wealthy. The eldest son of Lewis and Lucinda Phillips, Frank was born Nov. 28, 1873 in a log home his father built near the glacier-razed center of Nebraska. The Phillips instilled in their 10 children the principles of pride, loyalty to family and friends, and most of all, the mantra of hard work on the family farm. Frank assumed a natural leadership role with the children, expecting them to pull their own weight. He attended a one-room schoolhouse, which was his only formal education.

Tired of dirt under his fingernails, Frank longed to be part of the westward migration and the exciting world of the mining boom towns. The west was still wild, and Frank wanted to be part of it. So he donned the striped trousers of a barber and learned the trade that would take him from barber to entrepreneur.

His experiences in the west led to a passion for risk that drove all his future endeavors. He traded his barber’s stripes for banker’s suits and then the cowboy hats of the Oklahoma oil frontier. As founder of Phillips Petroleum Company, he become as successful and wealthy as any business tycoon of the day. He married Jane Gibson Phillips on February 18, 1897 and they had one, son John G. Phillips Sr., and two adopted daughters, Mary Francis and Sara Jane.

He was a complicated man who left a legacy of intrigue, passion, and loyalty which is alive today in Bartlesville due to his many philanthropic efforts. While other oil tycoons made their money and moved to either coast, Frank chose to stay in the community that helped make his success. He brought his wife and children to Bartlesville and built a 26-room, neo-classical mansion on Cherokee in 1909.

He had a tender and sentimental side and took a paternalistic pride in the company he founded, which earned him and Jane the titles of Uncle Frank and Aunt Jane. “We are what we are because of Frank Philips,” said Bob Fraser, CEO of Woolaroc, Frank and Jane’s 3700 acres ranch retreat turned museum and wildlife preserve. “There’s a good reason streets and highways are named after him. When Frank came here during the oil boom of the early 1900s, this was a dangerous, lawless land where outlaws made their home in the pocket of Osage County. A lot of these outlaws were friends of Franks. It was the wild west which became a sophisticated little burg that wouldn’t be here without Frank. He brought in the industries, built the buildings, and called it home. He felt obligated to make sure the town had what it needed to survive and thrive. That early decision to stay in Bartlesville was a huge turning point for the town.”

Frank’s philanthropic efforts were grand and glorious, like bringing the Ringling Brothers Circus every year to the “carnival grounds” near the Phillips Research Center to share his life-long fascination of the circus for the free enjoyment of local children and their parents.

He gave money to the schools and churches in Bartlesville and maintained a long list of local groups that needed funding. During the Great Depression years, Frank paid off the mortgages of every church in Bartlesville because he believed they were important for the advancement of the citizens.

Enthralled by airman Wiley Post, who sparked Frank’s enthusiasm for aviation, Frank sponsored Post as he climbed 55,000 feet above the Bartlesville Airport with cheering crowds to set a record higher than any human had ever flown.

Other generous gestures were small and intimate, like the memorable annual Christmas party in the lobby of the Frank Phillips building, where Frank passed bags with candy canes and silver dollars to waiting crowds of gleeful children and their grateful parents.

In 1937, Frank and Jane founded the Frank Phillips Foundation, Inc. to which they donated their ownership of Woolaroc, its grounds, and contents, to ensure its operation and preservation. The Foundation helped build and support the Jane Phillips Memorial Hospital for many years.

The Foundation was dedicated to supporting the nation’s youth. Frank gave lavishly to the Boy Scouts and the YMCA, and funneled money to the Catholic Charities, even though neither he nor Jane were Catholic, because he believed they were doing good things. Frank said of his philanthropic efforts, “I always wanted to be able to give money away, but I learned it was a hard thing to do and do right. You should never do for a person what he can do for himself.” By the end of 1937, Frank had developed a retirement plan for the employees to provide them with a life income after they reached the retirement age of 65. While the Foundation continued funding Frank’s projects until the 1970s, the trustees made the decision to cease funding other entities and turn their full support to Woolaroc.

Long after the death in 1950 of the man who rose from dirt to silver dollars, Frank Phillips left a personal legacy that makes Bartlesville the remarkable city it is today.