Now You Know: The Phillips Family From Humble Beginnings

by Debbie Neece, Bartlesville Area History Museum

Ohio born, Lewis “Lew” Franklin Phillips was the son of Daniel and Marilla (Standish) Phillips. About 1856, the Phillips family relocated to a farm near Des Moines where Marilla became the school teacher for her own children and the children in the area of their Iowa country home.

Thunder was rumbling and talk of Civil War filled the air. At just 17 years of age, the war took Lew as a boy and sent him home a man. At the close of the war, Lew returned to Iowa and became a farmer and carpenter. On July 3, 1867 he and Lucinda Josephine Faucett were married at Des Moines and they parented ten children: Etta, Mary Jane, Frank, Lee Eldas, Edward, Wiate, Waite, Nellie, Fred and Lura.

Lewis Phillips in the Civil War

Shortly after their second daughter was born in 1871, the Phillipses relocated to Nebraska seeking opportunities under the Homestead Act. After clearing their land and building a log home, Lew Phillips helped organize Nebraska’s Greeley County where he served as tax assessor and county judge, and helped found the town of Scotia, where their son Frank was born in 1873…their only Nebraska born child.

There came a dusty cloud of devouring Rocky Mountain locust that devastated everything Lew’s sweat equity had planted. Noted in Nebraska history as a “plague of biblical proportions,” the storm of grasshoppers left nothing in its wake. Beyond eating crops to the roots, the creatures invaded homes and ate clothes off the backs of pioneers. The crunched grasshopper bodies left an oily substance on every surface including train tracks which prevented escaping the insanity of the insatiable gnawing jaws and flapping wings. The trains just couldn't get traction on the oily tracks.

Lucinda Phillips

Faced with a polluted water supply, tainted livestock and very little food supply, the Phillips’ family goods were packed into their oxen-pulled covered wagon for the 260-mile trip back to Iowa. About a year after they settled in Conway, six year old Etta became gravely ill with diphtheria. In 1875, Etta died just three days shy of her seventh birthday and was buried at Gravity, IA.

The pain of the loss was still fresh when Lee Eldas was born the following year (1876) and Edward joined the growing Phillips brood in 1879. Delivering twins without complications was a miracle in 1883, but healthy Wiate and Waite were born January 19, followed by Nellie (1886), Fred (1889) and last but not least Lura (1892).

Mary Jane Phillips, known to friends and family as “Jennie,” was a seamstress who married Roy William Coan in 1900. She was a highlight in the Des Moines Tribune society pages as the hostess of the Congenial Embroidery Club, Entre Nous Club and DMC Crochet Club luncheons. The Coans did not bare children but focused their attention on the operation of the Coan Grocery in Gravity, Iowa for about seven years. Roy became employed as an assistant manager at Phillips Petroleum Company from which he later retired. In 1936, the couple traveled to New Orleans where they set sail on the SS Santa Marta for a three week vacation to the West Indies, South America and through the Panama Canal.

Phillips Family

Seven years later, Jennie suffered an incapacitating stroke, died on January 13, 1943 and was laid to rest in Washington Cemetery, Gravity, Iowa.

Frank Phillips was an apprentice barber at fourteen years of age and after working in Colorado a short time, settled in Creston where he worked at Tucker’s Barber Shop, which he later owned along with all other barber shops in Creston. Townsfolk said Frank liked to dress sharply and the barber attire suited him well. In 1897, Frank married Jane Gibson, daughter of Creston banker John Gibson who enticed his son-in-law to join him in the financial business. Frank and Jane became parents of John Gibson Phillips (1898) at Creston and later became foster parents for Mary Francis Phillips and Sara Jane Phillips.

Word of the oil boom in Indian Territory spread fast so Frank and John Gibson traveled to Bartlesville to verify the situation in 1903. They found amazing financial possibilities and returned to Creston long enough for Frank to pack a bag and contact his brother Lee Eldas to join him.

Lee Eldas Phillips

Lee Eldas “L.E.” Phillips was a “puritan at heart. Work was required for financial gain but his need for gain over his needs was not the goal. During his educational years, L.E. was a member of the Anchor Club which produced lifelong friendships. Although his short teaching career was at best challenging, selling insurance proved to be a greater challenge and coal mining was a disaster. In November 1902, he married Miss Lenora “Node” Carr, once a postmistress turned piano teacher. The couple became the parents of Philip Rex, Lee Eldas Jr. and Martha Jane Phillips. L.E. died in 1944 and Lenora in 1966, both are resting in Memorial Park Cemetery, Bartlesville.

Frank and L.E. traveled to Bartlesville, I.T. and with the support of family and friends, the two young men established Anchor Oil Company. After drilling three dry wells, the two entrepreneurs established the Citizen’s Bank and Trust. Times were hard and with just enough money to drill one more well, the Anna Anderson #1, in northwestern Washington County, proved profitable.

This was the beginning of what became the Phillips Petroleum Company empire. More on that after we meet the rest of the family.

Edward Esleigh Phillips was an Okmulgee oil producer. He married Christa Anna Beveridge September 1902 at Gravity and shortly thereafter moved to Okmulgee where Ed became employed at the Okmulgee Loan and Trust Company. By 1915, brothers Frank and Waite helped Ed establish the Okemah Abstract & Title Company in Okemah. Before retirement, Ed also was vice president of Waite Phillips Oil Company and president of Iowa Oil Company. Ed and Anna were parents of Mildred, Lewis Darrell, Dorothy, Josephine and Robert S. Phillips. Ed died in Okmulgee in 1952 and Anna followed in 1964. Both are buried in the Okmulgee Cemetery.

Waite and Wiate Phillips were identical twins with restless spirits who rode trains to unplanned destinations where they sought work to fund their next adventure. They worked in the Colorado mines, laid railroad track, cowboy ranching, anything that would pay. They were inseparable, except by death. While in Spokane, Washington, a burst appendix claimed Wiate’s life, July 16, 1902. At just 19 years of age, Wiate was escorted home where he was buried at Gravity, Iowa near his sister Etta who had died in 1875.

Waite and Wiate Phillips

After the death of his twin brother, Waite wandered aimlessly for a period of time. He became employed at his brother-in-law’s Coan Grocery in Gravity for a short time. Then, through the uplifting support of his family, he enrolled in business school and became an accountant for Hawkeye Coal Company of Iowa, operated by brothers Frank and L.E. In 1906, Waite traveled to Indian Territory and became an independent oil producer. Then, in 1909, he married Genevieve Elliott, the daughter of an Iowa banker. Shortly thereafter, their children, Helen Jane and Elliot Waite “Chope” Phillips joined their family. Waite and Genevieve lived their later years from their Bel-Air, California mansion where he died in 1964 and she followed in 1979. They were laid to rest in the Phillips Mausoleum at the Westwood Memorial Park Cemetery in Los Angeles after their services were conducted at the very chapel Marilyn Monroe’s service had been conducted in 1962.

Nellie Phillips married Ellis Ray Walker in 1908 and they became the parents of Darlene, Leoma, Lewis, Waite, Gwendolyn and Lura Esther Walker. Lura died in infancy. The Walkers farmed near Gravity, IA throughout their married lives and joined each other in the Washington Cemetery at Gravity, Ray in 1947 and Nellie in 1964.

Fred Phillips married Alma Stine and resided in Okmulgee when their children Jacque, Geraldine and Bill Dwight Phillips were born. Fred briefly worked for his brothers, Frank and Waite, before joining Gypsy Oil Company’s scouting department and the Iowa Oil Company. He then became the president of Reserve Oil Company until it was taken over by Atlantic Refining. At that time, he became a four-state independent oil operator until his retirement. Fred died in 1968 followed by Alma in 1974, both in Tulsa.

Lura Phillips shared her birthdate with older brother, Frank, November 28. She married Johnson Davis Hill in 1916 and moved to Tulsa in 1923. Mr. Hill was the chairman of the executive committee at Atlas Life Insurance Company in Tulsa. Lura was very active in the Trinity Episcopal Church and the 20th Century Club. The couple became parents to John Davis, Jr., Lewis Kimball and Robert Burns Hill. Resting in the El Dorado Springs Missouri Cemetery, Johnson Hill Sr. died in 1977 and Lura followed him in 1991 as the last survivor of Lew and Lucinda Phillips’ ten children.

Phillips Tower in Bartlesville, OK

Phillips Petroleum Company was incorporated in 1917 and is most recognized with Frank Phillips for his outgoing spirit and business direction; however, at one point or another, others in the family helped the company grow. L.E. was the silent partner who had the organizational and accounting skills to forward the business but preferred to not be in the limelight. Waite had been watching his older brothers, learned well and became quite prosperous. It was to Waite’s benefit that he often clashed with Frank, for the friction spurred Waite to develop his own fortune. The Waite Phillips Oil Company and the Independent Oil and Gas Company, which he owned, was later sold and merged with Phillips Petroleum in 1930.

From the Phillips family’s humble Iowa beginnings, fortunes have been won and generous legacies remain.

Beyond the Phillips Petroleum Company, Frank will be remembered for his philanthropic jesters toward children, churches and members of the community. During the Great Depression, Frank and Jane invested in Bartlesville by building their Cherokee Avenue mansion and their Osage County ranch, Woolaroc. To their tribute, Bartlesville celebrated Frank’s 66th birthday in grand parade fashion, named Frank Phillips Blvd. and Jane Phillips housing addition, and built Jane Phillips Hospital.

L.E. Phillips was not just the co-founder of Phillips Petroleum Company and the Citizens Bank and Trust; he wore many “hats.”

Lee Eldas Phillips Family

He served the Oklahoma Bankers Association, American Bankers Association and Kansas City Federal Reserve Bank. During World War I, he served on the Oklahoma State Council of Defense and Red Cross and Liberty Loan campaigns. Then, in 1934, he removed his hats as Phillips Petroleum Company vice president, general manager and executive committee chairman to enter retirement and enjoy the south Bartlesville Philson Farm he and his son, Philip R. Phillips, created.

L.E. and Nodie Phillip’s daughter, Martha Jane Phillips, married John Wilbur “Twink” Starr and they resided in Kansas City where they were active in civic and social circles. Beyond donating funding assistance to help establish the Bartlesville Area History Museum, Martha Jane Phillips Starr and her husband have left an outstanding philanthropic legacy in Kansas City.

Waite Phillips proved himself an oil baron and humbly believed in sharing generously…with his family and with causes dear to his heart. His lifelong dream was to become a rancher, so in the 1920s, he purchased three hundred thousand acres near Cimarron, NM with the goal of creating the best cattle ranch in the state. Nearly half of his ranch became the Philmont Boy Scout Ranch and their Edward Delk inspired Villa Philmonte home became the BSA training center.

In addition, Waite and Genevieve Phillips left a large Tulsa legacy; their Tulsa mansion became the Philbrook Museum of Art, they built and donated the Gilcrease Museum, and they built the Philtower and Philcade buildings in downtown Tulsa. Villa Philmonte, Philbrook, Philtower and Philcade have been placed on the National Registry of Historic Places.

Waite’s Villa, Philmonte

And in 1936, Waite Phillips donated $100,000 (1.9 million today) to St. John Hospital in Tulsa in memory of Wiate Phillips.

The philanthropic gifts of the Phillips’ family began when Frank and L.E. Phillips stepped off the train with a pocket of dreams. From that day, oil and money flowed throughout the family. Today, their American dream has left an outstanding legacy.

Did You Know?

Captain Miles Standish traveled to America with the Pilgrims on the Mayflower. The Lew Phillips children were ninth generation descendants of Miles Standish, in line with their grandparents, Daniel and Marilla (Standish) Phillips. The ten Phillips children were thrilled to boast of their kinship with the Mayflower and later Frank and L.E. Phillips named one of their 80+ oil companies Standish Oil.

Now You Know *