Curtis J. Phillips
The subject of this sketch, who had been more or less actively associated
with the Oklahoma Historical Society for twenty years past, passed
away at Long Island City, N. Y., February 1, 1931.
Curtis J. Phillips was born in Crawford County, Illinois, August
15, 1856. His parents moved to Southern Nebraska and settled on a
Government homestead, in 1865. The education which had been begun,
in the public schools of Illinois was continued in a hillside "dugout"
schoolroom on the Nebraska prairies. Like other pioneers of that period
and region, with his father's family, he experienced all of the vicissitudes
and hardships of frontier life.
At the age of twenty, he began operating a small wagon-freight outfit
between Sydney, Nebraska and Deadwood, Dakota, continuing while the
gold mining craze was at its height in the Black Hills. In 1882, he
went to the southern border towns of Kansas and thence into the Indian
Territory, spending some time in the service of a trading house in
the Osage country. Then followed two years in newspaper work on the
Sherman Journal, at Sherman, Texas, in 1884-5. Thence he returned
to the Osage country where he remained in trading work until 1888,
when he journeyed to California to again engage in newspaper work
as associate editor and advertising manager of the Ventura Free Press,
for a year or more.
Again returning to the Osage country, he became a licensed Indian
trader, at Pawhuska, the site of the tribal agency. There, in 1890,
he was married to Rose Tracy Turner, of the Osage Methodist Mission
School. The loss of cattle by Texas fever resulted in business reverses
that caused him to leave the Osage Nation. He then spent four years
in Louisiana, where he worked as a timber cruiser and engaged in mercantile
operations. Returning to Pawhuska, in 1909, he established the 'Osage
Magazine,' which was later published in Oklahoma City and, still later,
merged with the 'Wild West Magazine," which he edited. From 1912
on, for fifteen years, he was an oil and gas producer, with headquarters
at Sapulpa. Mrs. Phillips died in May, 1925.
Although Mr. Phillips' educational advantages had been limited, he
had made splendid use of what opportunities he did have. He was a
great reader and was accounted an intelligent and well posted man.
He was especially interested in local history and Indian lore. He
was a life member of the Oklahoma Historical Society and had served
two terms as a member of its board of directors. For several years
past, he had spent much of his time at the home of his daughter, Mrs.
J. D. Wade, Jr., at Long Island City, where his death occurred after
a brief illness. His remains were laid to rest in a cemetery at Flushing,
Long Island.
Source: "Necrology." Chronicles of Oklahoma, Vol. 9, No.
2 June 1931. 18 Aug 2003 <http://digital.library.okstate.edu/chronicles/v009/v009p212.html>.
Contributed by Marti Graham,
August 2003. Information posted as courtesy to researchers. The contributor
is not related to nor researching any of the above.
