Mr. Phillips

Birth: He was born around 1861 (71 years of age in 1930).  

Family Information:  

Description: "He thinks nothing of a little jaunt of eight or nine miles on foot and so walked in to have dinner at the hotel [one] day...", though not because he needed good food -- he was a good cook himself, making his own butter and baking his own bread.  

Pre-Colony History:  

Home in Colony: In 1930 he had a cabin, garden, chickens and cow beside the historic Anacoco, deep bordered by pine and cypress. If his cow ran short on hay, he'd hike in to the village to give notice of the shortage of rations so more could be taken out.

In 1931 there was a group of thirteen men and women living at the Anacoco mill site, who were doing the work of twenty-six people. They had a good garden under the direction of Mr. Phillips.  

Job in Colony: In 1927, he lived and worked at the Hoag Ranch; later ran the Anacoco Creek sawmill.

In June 1929 he was living next door to the Hoag Ranch and was introduced as the head gardener for that section. He was not the common vegetable variety of gardener -- he was a viticulturist, a horticulturist and floriculturist combined. In his garden, amongst other things, you would find large bunches of grapes hanging on the grape vines.

He and Mrs. Hoag looked after the chickens while W.J. Hoag was working in his "tinshop" in Newllano.

In February 1934 he was a member of the Sunday Volunteer Gang including: Bill Heath, Charles Brown, Rob Roe, Walter Gaulke, Dad Thomas, Ernest Prodon, Bert Busick, Roscoe Busick, Gossett, Jack Carnahan, Ed Hiatt John Calgarry, Tom Cunningham, Phillips, Real Baril, Nick Lentz, Ed Mansfield, Septer Baldwin, F.W. Fay and F.S. Hammond. They spent the day cutting some eight hundred feet of cypress lumber into two-inch planks, twenty inches wide and as clear as a hound's tooth to be used for shingles.  

Other Info: In February 1931 he was living at the sawmill on Anacoco Creek when plans were announced to add a store at that location. At that point there were two farm houses near the sawmill building. They had already put in a new boiler and expected a new engine soon that would enable the sawmill to "turn out more lumber everyday than the old mill ever did." Since it was the only sawmill in that area, they expected to do a big business sawing for neighbors, either for cash or on shares.

Post-Colony History:  

Death:  

Sources: "Llano Colonist": October 29, 1927, June 29, 1929, January 25, 1930, February 14, 1931, September 19, 1931, February 3, 1934; "Vernon Parish Democrat": June 27, 1929