From HISTORY OF THE PAN-HANDLE, West Virginia, 1879, by J. H. Newton, 
G. G. Nichols, and A. G. Sprankle. Page 269  

Contributed by Linda Cunningham Fluharty.


THOMAS P. PHILLIPS, is the fourth son of John Phillips, a native of Maryland, 
but removed to Cadiz, Ohio, where he was one of the early settlers, and an 
influential farmer and merchant. His mother's maiden name was Eliza Gilmore, 
cousin to the late James Buchanan, President of the United States, and she was 
also distantly rerelated to Bishop Simpson, of the Methodist Episcopal Church. 
Thomas P. Phillips was born in Cadiz, Ohio, in 1846, and about 1865 first 
entered the service of George & Bros., of that place, with whom he remained one 
year, and went to Chicago. Here he entered the service of B. W. Phillips & Co., 
his cousins, who were in the insurance business. After six months with them he 
went with the Republic Fire Insurance Company, in the same city, remaining there 
until 1867. He next went with the North American Company, of Philadelphia, as 
their special agent in Illinois, conducting also a local agency at Bloomington, 
where he remained to 1874. From this he was appointed general agent in the 
Western States for the Franklin of Wheeling, removing at that time, back to 
Chicago, where he remained till 1875. Being that year elected to the 
secretaryship of the same company, he immediately came to Wheeling, and still 
fills the same important office. He was married in 1869, to Frances E., second 
daughter of W. F. Flagg, a large manufacturer and very large real estate owner, 
of Bloomington, Illinois. They have two children.