Phipps, Samuel

SAMUEL PHIPPS, second son of John Phipps, was born in Westmoreland county November 25, 1795, and was but two years old when his father removed with his family to Venango county. He received only such educational advantages in his youth as could be obtained in the primitive schools at that early day, walking several miles morning and evening to secure even that. In later life, when looking back through "three score years and ten" he recalled with delight the days spent in the rude log school house, when his teacher, Isabel Craig, was his favorite friend. With an excellent memory, and a passion for reading rarely known in those days, he became well informed in history, both ancient and modern, and was especially at home in the political events of his own and other countries, becoming a prominent member of the debating societies that served the purpose of the higher literary schools of today. Books selected with taste and good judgment from the best authors in natural and moral philosophy, history, biography, and the sciences, constituted his library, from which he always derived great enjoyment. Farming in summer and shipping lime and lumber for buildings and bridges at Pittsburgh, Wheeling, and Cincinnati in the winter, employed his early years, but later in life he turned his chief attention to his farm, where he had subdued the forest, built the home to which he took his bride on their wedding day, contributed the best years of his life to his family and his friends, and August 9, 1879, in his eighty fourth year, went to his last, long sleep, fully comforted in the faith of his fathers.

Of the union of Samuel Phipps and Amelia Halyday, of Cornplanter township, thirteen children were born: Sarah H., married to Robert F. Whann, who died leaving two sons, and by second marriage wife of William Raymond, of Raymilton; Mary, widow of Robert Brigham, deceased; Catharine, widow of John H. Craig o. Denver, deceased; Uretta, wife of James Anderson; Elizabeth, who died in infancy; Eliza, wife of A.G. Egbert of Franklin; John, who died in infancy; Susan C., wife of Doctor Thomas McMillan, both deceased; Francis Halyday, deceased; Samuel E. of Edinboro, Erie county; Cyrus D., of Franklin; Nancy McK., wife of William Cross, and Hervey C., of Leadville, Colorado. In politics Mr. Phipps was a Democrat, and served one term as sheriff of Venango county.