Biography of Louis N. Phillippi

Louis N. Phillippi, born on July 16, 1834, in Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, became a prominent figure in Morris Township. He owned a successful 320-acre farm and was known for his industrious nature and sharp financial management. After various business ventures and relocations, including a challenging period in Ness County, he established a flourishing farm in Kansas. Married to Mary Weaver, they had five children, and Mr. Phillippi was active in community service, including his roles in the Methodist Church and Masonic fraternity.

LOUIS N. PHILLIPPI. Few men within the limits of Morris Township have attained to a better position through a course of industry and good management than the subject of this biographical outline, who is the owner of one of its finest farms, embracing three hundred and twenty acres on section 6. Mr. Phillippi is in possession of the true secret of comfort and profit, paying others to do his hard work and keeping a close eye to the general management, noting the receipts and disbursements and knowing at all times where he stands financially. He is a man liberal and progressive in his ideas and one evidently who was born to make his mark in his community.

The native place of our subject was in Westmoreland County, Pa., and the date of his birth July 16, 1834. He was the fourth in a family of six children born to John and Eve (Brant) Phillippi, both of whom were natives of the Keystone State, where they were reared and married and where they spent their entire lives. John Phillippi was a farmer by occupation and he likewise officiated as an exhorter in the United Brethren Church. He died at the old homestead in Westmoreland County in 1851. The mother survived her husband for a period of thirty-two years, remaining a widow and departed this life at the age of eighty. The farm which the father secured in his early manhood is still in the family and considered one of the finest estates in Westmoreland County.

Young Phillippi acquired such education as was furnished by the common school and at the age of eighteen years started out for himself, engaging for about one year with a partner in the mercantile business. He was then broken up by the rascality of his partner, losing nearly all he had and assuming the debts of the concern, all of which he liquidated to the full extent. He continued in business for eleven years and was then burned out, with no insurance. He then removed to Stahlstown, continuing there also in the mercantile business for eleven years in all, and in the meantime traded a farm which he had purchased for a three-story house, two lots and a stable. This also was destroyed by fire, and no insurance. In 1870 he removed to Wayne County, Ohio, and was in business there two years. Then pushing on further westward he settled on a farm in Effingham County, Ill., where he sojourned four years.

Selling out then again, we next find Mr. Phillippi at Altamont, where he again associated himself with a partner and at the end of three years found himself again a loser, and forced to commence once more at the foot of the ladder. This brings Mr. Phillippi up to 1879, in which year he came to this State and settled in Ness County, where he sojourned five years, living in a sod house and was never able to raise a crop during the whole time. Finally, securing a small stock of notions and jewelry he packed them into trunks and traveled on the railroad from one town to another, disposing of his merchandise, and thus managed to clear $100 above expenses every month. After thus securing a sufficient sum of money he, in 1885, came to this county and purchased three hundred and twenty acres of partially improved land, embracing his present homestead. This last venture proved highly successful. He has now a well-developed farm which yields in abundance the rich crops of the Sunflower State and is also largely devoted to the breeding of cattle and swine.

While a resident of Pennsylvania Mr. Phillippi, in 1855, took unto himself a wife and helpmate, Miss Mary, daughter of William and Jane (Grove) Weaver. Parents and daughter were natives of the same township in Pennsylvania as our subject. Mrs. Phillippi was born September 10, 1837, and was the eldest in a family of five children. The mother died April 16, 1887. Mr. Weaver is still living in Pennsylvania, being now past eighty years old. There have also been born five children to Mr. and Mrs. Phillippi, four of whom are living. John is a resident of Halstead, this State; Imelda, Edgar and Bertram are at home with their parents. The latter are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church in which Mr. Phillippi has been for many years a Class-Leader and Steward. He identified himself with the Masonic fraternity while a resident of his native State and at the present time belongs to the lodge at Argonia. For over fifteen years he has been a member in good standing of the A. O. U. W., holding various offices, and he also belongs to the Farmers’ Alliance. He cast his first Presidential vote for John C. Fremont, at the organization of the Republican party and has since been an active supporter of its principles. After the outbreak of the Civil War he endeavored to enter the ranks as a Union soldier in the Two Hundred and Eleventh Pennsylvania Infantry, but was rejected on account of physical disability. He, however, was elected sutler and sent a man in his place. The latter robbed him of $4,000 worth of goods which had been purchased on thirty days’ time.