~ JOHN PHILLIPS ~ 1797 - 1885 ~
Husband of Harriette Bosworth and Eva Haddock
Son of David Phillips and Anna (Goodwin) ScottSubmitted by Cousin Carrie Foster
His Obituary readsDied --- On March 17, at his residence on Laurel Fork, Upshur County, W. Va., John Phillips Sr., in the 88th year of his age.
Mr. Phillips was born in Ashfield, Mass., in May 1797 and came with his father, David Phillips, to French Creek, when but 18 years of age. They were among the earliest settlers in this section and came all the way from Massachusetts in wagons drawn by oxen.
While a boy in Massachusetts, Mr. Phillips attended school with Wm. Cullen Bryant, who was about his own age. Little did these two boys dream, while studying and playing together, of the wide difference in their future lives. One at 18 years of age was to write "Thanatopsis" which opened for him the radiant gates of Song's immortal temple; while the other, at the same age, was to plunge into the trackless wilderness of West Virginia, and live by his ax and gun.
For 70 years he has lived his quiet, humble , honest life in this community. His father David Phillips and his mother Anna Phillips, were among the fifteen persons who composed the Presbyterian Church of French Creek, at it's organization, nearly 66 years ago. He never made a public profession of religion, still he has been a praying man, and about a week before his death, he became perfectly satisfied of his acceptance with God. Death had for him no terrors. He passed with a firm and quiet trust in the Savior, from toils of a long earthy life, to the joys of an endless Heavenly life.
"The Sun of Life was sinking low,
And Death's chill night was stealing on,
When, fair as God's bright promise-bow,
He saw by Faith the Uplifted One;
While from that hour of holy peace,
Sins blighting shadows vanished quit;
As God's sweet promise gave release;
"At evening time it shall be light"
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