EDGAR D. PHILLIPS.

Rock Township.

FROM THE NEWSPAPERS.

Walnut Valley Times, October 20, 1871. Front Page.

The delegates from the several precincts to the Peoples’ Convention met at Winfield on Saturday, Sept. 30th, at 2 o’clock, P. M., and nominated the following officers:

For County Commissioners for District No. 1, Mr. Phillips; District No. 2, H. L. Gilstrap; District No. 3, E. Simpson. The three Commissioners were elected by acclamation.

This ticket gives more general satisfaction, and is a fairer distribution of offices than any ever before nominated. Arkansas Traveler.

Note: Miss Melissa Phillips, sister of Edgar D. Phillips, married James P. Short of Winfield in 1872 according to information given below in 1926...

Winfield Courier, August 12, 1926.

James P. Short came to Winfield in the year 1870, and getting from the townsite company the lots on the northeast corner of Ninth and Main now covered by the buildings occupied by the Stafford Abstract company and Olds’s Drug store, he erected thereon first a tent and later a log house in which he kept Winfield’s first hotel. Later he built the building which now occupies the corner and houses the Cowley County Bank.

He was appointed deputy county treasurer on July 6, 1870, by John Devore, the first treasurer, and also was Winfield’s first assessor.

Mr. Short was born in Livingston County, New York, on June 16, 1845. He served in the Civil War in the New York Heavy Artillery from November 16, 1863, to May 1, 1865, through Grant’s last campaign from the Wilderness to Appomattox. He was married 53 years ago to Miss Melissa Phillips at Waterloo, Iowa. They had three children who survived Mr. Short: Phillip Short, who lived on a farm near Winfield; Mrs. Newton Anderson, of Denver, Colorado, and Mrs. L. A. Millspaugh, of Winfield..

The Winfield Census of 1874 lists J. P. Short, age 28, and his wife, Melissa, age 25.

In 1872 Mr. Short was married to Lissa M. Phillips, a native of New York State, who had journeyed west, to visit her brother, Edgar D. Phillips, one of the first settlers, and the first trustee of Rock Township.

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THE WINFIELD COURIER. CENTENNIAL ISSUE.

WINFIELD COURIER, THURSDAY, JANUARY 6, 1876.

Cowley County was organized Feb. 28, 1870, by the order of Gov. Harvey on petition, and Winfield was designated as the temporary county seat. W. W. Andrews, of Winfield, G. H. Norton, of Creswell, S. F. Graham, of Dexter, were appointed County Commissioners, Feb. 28, 1870, and E. P. Hickok was appointed County Clerk at the same time by the same authority. The first meeting of the County Board was held March 23, 1870, at the house of W. W. Andrews, at which time W. W. Andrews was chosen chairman.

The following is the first action taken at that meeting, and is the first official record in Cowley County. "County Commissioners, pursuant to a previous call, met at Winfield on the 23rd day of March, A. D. 1870, at Mr. Andrews'. Present—Andrews and Norton. County Clerk proceeded to divide the county into three townships, numbered 1, 2, and 3. No. 1 to include all that part of Cowley County laying north of a line running through the county east and west, touching the mouth of Little Dutch creek, all north of Little Dutch to be included in said township. No. 2 to include all south of the mouth of Little Dutch, extending south to include E. P. Hickok’s claim, and to within ten miles of the mouth of Grouse creek. No. 3 to include all south of E. P. Hickok’s claim on Walnut and the lower ten miles of the Grouse and the Arkansas to the State line. Election in township No. 1 to be held at the house of Edward [Edgar] Phillips, at the mouth of Rock creek. No. 2 at Winfield. No. 3 at Creswell.”

Rock Township was organized on May 23, 1870. The township contained 56 square miles. By 1875 there were 724 inhabitants. Ed. Phillips was the first trustee.

The Republican voters are requested to meet in primary conventions at 2 o’clock, on Saturday, August 27th, at the following places:

Rock Creek, at Phillips’.

Ratio of representation, four delegates to each township.

By order of the State Executive Committee, M. M. MURDOCK, Secretary.

Pursuant to that notice a convention was held at Dexter on Sept. 3rd. That body selected H. B. Norton as the delegate from Cowley County to the State Convention, and selected a County Republican Central Committee, of which James McDermott was appointed chairman and W. P. Hackney secretary.

[Further information relative to Ed. D. Phillips was not found. MAW]