DANIEL PHILLIPS. Among the honored and well-to-do tillers of the soil of Newton County, Arkansas, may be mentioned Daniel Phillips, whose many years of hard labor have been rewarded with abundant means. He is now in the enjoyment of a comfortable income, the result of intelligent management and undeviating industry, and enjoys the esteem and confidence of all with whom he has had business relations.
He was born in Morgan County, Tennessee, August 27, 1846, being the sixth of nine children born to Jesse and Parmelia (Everage) Phillips, both of whom were born in the Old North State. The former died in Johnson County, Arkansas, in 1878, at the age of seventy-five years, in which section he had settled in 1859, and where he was successfully engaged in tilling the soil. During the lamentable Civil War he was a stanch Union man and all his sons were soldiers in the Federal Army. He became a strong supporter of the Republican party after the war, but being of a quiet and retiring disposition he never aspired to public preferment, choosing to leave the strife and turmoil of political life to others. He was a worthy member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, as was his wife, who died in 1880 at the age of seventy-eight years.
His father, John Phillips, was a North Carolinian. The children which he and his wife reared were as follows: Dinah, Miles H., Frances, Absalom, Margaret, Daniel, John, William, Tull, and one that is deceased. Daniel and Absalom are residents of Newton County, Arkansas, and the latter is a successful merchant of Marble City. Frances, who is the wife of M. Braziler, is residing in this county as is also Margaret, who is the wife of John Allen. The parents of these children died in Johnson County, Arkansas, where they made their home some years prior to their death.
Daniel Phillips was a boy of thirteen years when he came to this county, and owing to his youth he did not enlist in the service of his country until April 18, 1863, when he became a member of Company 1, Second Arkansas Cavalry, under John E. Phelps, and was in some of the principal battles in which that regiment participated. Notwithstanding his youth, he made a good soldier and was ever found at the post of duty. He received his discharge at La Grange, Tennessee, in 1865, after which he returned to his home in Newton County, where he at once energetically entered upon the pursuits of civil life. While serving in the Civil War he was married to Miss Clarissa Brasell, a daughter of James Brasell, who died many years ago in Illinois. His widow, whose maiden name was Priscilla Suazey, came from her native State of Tennessee to Illinois, thence to Missouri, and in 1861 became a resident of Newton County, Arkansas, her home being located about twenty-five miles from Jasper, where she died soon after the war. Mrs. Phillips was born in Jackson County, Tennessee, April 8, 1847, and after the war closed she located with her husband on a farm about twenty miles from Jasper, where they made their home until 1869, when they located on a farm near Mount Parthenon, where at a later period Mr. Phillips entered the mercantile business, continuing this occupation in connection with farming until 1888, when he moved to Jasper and opened a general mercantile establishment at this place.
However, at the present time, he is engaged in farming, his estate comprising 180 acres of fertile land on Little Buffalo Creek. He started out in life with no capital, and what he now has is the result of his own shrewd management and push. He has always been a Republican of pronounced type and has held the office of deputy county sheriff for the last three years. He has attained to the chapter in the Masonic fraternity, is interested in all educational and religious movements, and he and his wife are active members of the Methodist Episcopal Church. Their children are as follows: Parmelia, who died at the age of twelve years; Henry, who is county superintendent of schools; Sarah F., who died at the age of six years; Louis, engaged in teaching, John, Nancy, Russell, and Sherman.