Re: Any family stories about Phillip Phagan Gillham?
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In reply to:
Any family stories about Phillip Phagan Gillham?
Barbara McCarthy 4/24/05
Hi, Barbara:
Don't know if I've given you any of this information, but it is a compilation of the notes I have under Phillip P., Sr. If the source of the info is known, I always attempt to credit them when I put it in my database. Here's what I have:
Transcript of a photocopy:
Philip F. Gillham to Matilda E. Stewart marriage state of Arkansas, county of Montgomery, Caddo Township - I do hereby certify I solemnized a marriage between Philip F. Gillham and Matilda E. Stewart on the 6th day of April 1848. All of said county of Montgomery and state of Arkansas. Given under my hand this 20th day of May 1848. Martin Mandy J.P.
The above certificate recorded on the 29th day of May A.D. 1848.
John Cook clerk and
recorder by his deputy
J.J. McLendon
Phillip and Matilda lived near Ozark, Arkansas.
Phillip's first wife, Matilda, and three children died of measles during an epidemic during the Civil War while at Little Rock and were buried in a field near Collegville.
In 1861, at the start of the Civil War, Phillip, with his brothers John and Aaron enlisted in the 3rd Missouri Volunteer Cavalry, Co. H at Little Rock.
Phillip Phagan Gillham, Sr. built a log cabin around 1865 near Royal, Arkansas. The timber came from the farm. We know the cabin was completed by May 27, 1866 when Sarah was born. All of Phillip's children by this wife were married at the old homestead.
Phillip and his second wife, Mrs. Sarah Adeline Rogers KIng, a widow with three small children, were married by James Richard.
The last child born to Phillip and Sarah was Johnathan, Born February 10, 1881. He died November 19, 1882 when he was 21 months old.
Phillip's last marriage to Elizabeth Hance recorded in Garland County, Arkansas Book A, Page 5.
Phillip Phagan Gillham, Sr. was a minister in the Church of God, John Weinbrenner Sect.
A veteran's pension application was filed Aug. 9, 1883 stating that he was an invalid (#492169 Certificate #368325).
On September 30, 1908, Phillip went to Hot Springs in his buggy pulled by a smart looking brown and white pinto pony named "Fannie Mae". This horse was almost a celebrity among the Gillham children because of its smart looks, good disposition and intelligence. In fact, once pointed on the homeward path, "Fannie Mae" would find the way home. Phillip fell dead while on his way home from market in Hot Springs. Fannie Mae could have taken him home, but he fell to the side of the buggy causing a wheel to lodge in a culvert. He was about 1/4 mile from home.
Phillip had some money buried on the old home place. After he died, the children checked the homestead and found where someone had removed the pot of money. When he died, the homestead passed out of the Gillham family and went to his 3rd wife.
A Union-Civil War pension application was made by his third wife, Elizabeth J. (Hance) Gillham. There is an Application number 908183, but no certificate given indicating the pension was not awarded.
The following is one of the military records compiled around 1970 from pension applications found in the files of the National Archives, Washington, D.C. by Robert Williams, a descendant of Sarah Gillham Davidson. If a relationship to Thomas Gillham, Sr. is known, it is indicated in the write-up.
Phillip Phagan Gillham, Sr. (5)Pension file No. 368-325
Served in Co. "H", 3rd
Missouri Cavalry
Son of John Gillham (4), Jacob Clemons Gillham (3), Ezekiel Gillham (2), Thomas Gillham, Sr. (1). and his wife, Rosa McQuerter. Phillip was discharged from the Union Army September 17, 1864. The war continued until April 9, 1865 when Lee surrendered to Grant at Appomattox Court House, Virginia. May 4, 1865. Alabama and Mississippi surrendered and, on May 26, 1865 Texas surrendered. He was probably discharged before the end of the war for personal reasons. Phillip was born September 24, 1828 in Tennessee and died September 30, 1908. He married three times: 1st on April 6, 1848 to Martha (Matilda) Stewart, who died July 11, 1864. After he left the Army, he went to Royal, Arkansas (west of Hot Springs) where he married 2nd in Montgomery County, Arkansas on August 6, 1865 by James Richard to Mrs. Sarah Adaline (Rogers) King, a school teacher from Chattanooga, Tennessee and a widow of Alfred King. She had three children from that marriage, but only her daughter was living at the time of the marriage to Phillip. She died February 19, 1885. He married 3rd to Elizabeth J. Sexton Hance. Children of the 1st marriage: Thomas Newton, John Nelson, William, Stephen, Emily and 4 others who died during the war. Children of his 2nd marriage: Sarah, Anna Bathsheba, Rachel, Enoch E., Phillip Phagan, Jr., and one other not identified, and may have been of 1st marriage. He lived in Little Rock, Arkansas and also in Garland County, Arkansas.
It is not known what happened to his children between the time their mother died and their father was discharged. What we do know is how difficult it was for the family.
The 1870 census for Marzan Township, Montgomery County, lists P.P. (41), Sarah A. (27), Thomas N. (21), William A. (17), Philip P. (16), Emily (14), Mary Jane King (10), Sarah E. (4) and Anna B. (1). Phillip (16) died in 1870 and was buried at Lowe Cemetery. Rachel was born in the Spring of 1871 and died in the fall at the age of 6 months. Enoch was born the next year, and Phillip Phagan, Jr. was born in 1875. Rosella was born in 1877.
Per the Genealogylibrary.com census for the Ouichita, Garland County, Arksnsas, Series# T623, Microfilm # 59, Book 2, Page 178, taken June 26, 1900, reported as living in dwelling # 243, household # 243 were: Phillip P. Gillham, head of household, a farmer, age 71, born Tennessee, September 1828, his wife, Elizabeth, age 71, born Kentucky, December 1828.
Phillip's father was born in North Carolina, his mother in South Carolina.
Elizabeth's father was born in Virginia, her mother in South Carolina.
Phillip and Elizabeth could read, but they couldn't write.
At the time of the census, it was reported they'd been married 52 years. Actually, Phillip had been married a total of 52 years, Elizabeth and Phillip were married in July 1890 - they had no children from their union.
Elizabeth bore 5 children, 1 of whom was alive at the time of the census.
The following information downloaded from Ancestry.com's website September 2001:
Arkansas Marriages, 1851-1900
GILLHAM, PHILLIP D. (Should be P.)
Spouse: KING, SARAH ADALINE Marriage Date: 6 Aug 1865
County: Hot Springs State: AR
The following notes sent to this compiler (HJG) in Jan. 2005 by Vivian Gillham Vanoni:
Philipp Phagan Gillham, Sr.
Born 1828 - Died 1908
Before the Civil War, he married Matilda Stewart and built a house of hewn logs, which is still very liveable to this day (1977). It's located about 1/2 mile north of thr Royal, Arkansas Post Office.
When the war came, he enlisted in the Union Army, and while he was in that service, Matilda, with her children, lived with her parents from protection, for it was a wild lawless time during the war. Gangs of renegades, refusing to enter the Army, rode roughshod over the country, robbing, killing and raping at wil.
Three such men approached Phillip Phaegan, before he enlisted in the Army, trying to persuade him to join them in their evil chosen ways, but he refused. Two of the men were brothers, Henry and Jim P. and the other was Andy G.
Andy G. had tried to win Matilda Stewart, but she spurned him and married Phillip Phagan instead. Andy G. fancied himself as a Don Juan, a lady catcher, and when Matilda turned him away, his pride suffered severly and as time went on, a festering sore grew within him, He became filled with a vicious hatred for everyone, it seemed. He wrode with the two brothers and woe unto the unfortunate girl or woman who became his ictim. They murdered. robbed, kidnapped were feared as far north as Missouri. After the war, for a few years, they still rode though no so boldly as before.
Phillip Phagan came home from the war and moved with his family back into the house he'd built near Royal, Arkansas. Phillip farmed and did some carpentry work, he was also a hunter and a very good one. He hunted bear with the famous McDaniel boys who lived near Bear Town. ONe peculiarity, although he was right-handed in all else, he shot left-handed, this has been handed down generation after generation. (My father, Thomas Phagan Gillham, shot from his left side, as do I, Marcus Camillus Gillham, and so does my son, Marcus C. Gillham, Jr.)
One day Phillip was working in the field, not far from his house while Matilda was in her garden. The two brothers and Andy G. rode up, and Andy dismounted and tried to put Matilda on his horse. She fought him fiercely, and bit one of his hands. He swore loudly, inflamed partially by the native corn whiskey he had been drinking. Matilda got loose and started to run, but Andy G. grabbed one of her long silken blonde braids, and drawing his bowie knife, plunged it into her back.
At this point, PHillip had gained the house and gotten his rifle and ran to a window. The three renegades fired at him, their bullets lodging in the logs near the window. Phillip fired and slightly wounded Andy who taking one of Phillip's horses, a Bay with a blaze of white in his face, rode rapidly away.
Matilda clung to life throught the day and night, she was pregnant and at one time, she rallied and said in a weak voice, "I must live for the baby." Next day, the baby was born dead and Matilda too passed on soon after.
Doc. H. was a mysterious man, tall, rather slender, but wiry and tough as rawhide. It wa said he was from Texas where he'd been a cowboy, Indian fighter, buffalo hunter, and gun fighter. He had been a bounty hunter at times, seeming to hate the lawless characters of those uncertain times.
Doc's hair was black as a crow's wing and was his morurnful drooping mustache. His skin was dark as an Indians, his eyes piercing black and set in deep cavens above high cheekbones. He always wore a Colt's revolver on his belt and carried a rifle and Bowie knife wherever he went. He was a man of very few words, silent, even morose, but hi eyes missed nothing. It was said that he was the best tracker in the country. He hunted bears with the McDaniel boys, and one of them said of Doc, "He can cross a grasshopper across solid rock". He was a very good friend of Phillip's and Matilda and loved the children as a father or grandfather might have. He often brought dear or bear meat for Phillip and his family and often stayed for supper, enjoying Matilda's cooking. The only times he was seen to smile, was when playing with the Gillham children.
He was supposed to have been on his way back to Texasat the time of Matilda's death, but he had ridden over to Bear Town to the McDaniel's home, as Big Pete McDaniel had expressed a desire to ride to Texas with him.
The McDaniel boys had gone down the Ouachita River by boat on a big bear hunt so Doc hung around Bear Town for Pete to come hime. When news of Matilda's murder reached Doc, he rode immediately to Phillip's home at Royal. At the funeral he stood apart, hat off his dark head bowed. Near him stood two saddled horses and a packhorse. When the funeral was over, Doc strode to Phillip's and in a low gentle voice said, "Send them little fellers home with their grandpa, cause you and me shore has some ridin' ahead of us.
Mounted, tbey rode north and after about a half mile, Doc fount the trails of the three renegades. They rode steadily; the sharp eyes of Doc H. found the trail easily. They crossed the Ouachita River at Golden's Fort then northeast into the mountains. Here, on the rocky terrain, it became more difficult to find the signs of the renegades but the old scout was equal to the task. About two hours before sunset, they scouted a small cabin on the hillside. Smoke drifted lazily from the chimney. There were half a dozen horses in a pole corral; one of em was Phillips Bay.
They dismounted and tied their horses in a pine thicket. Taking their refles, they proceeded quietly down the hill until near the cabin. Doc told Phillip to go around the front and wait, in his words, "till I jump em".
Phillip crept around to a corner near the front door and found a crack between the logs through which he looked at the three men who were eating at a rough table. Their rifles were stacked in a corner, but all three wore revolvers at their belts. As they ate, Phillip heard them in an argument. "If you hadn't killed that woman, we would not be in so much trouble. The whole country'll be after us," growled Jim P., Andy G. said, "They can't find us here fer awhile, anyway, I'm headin' out for Missouri first thing in the morning." At this, Doc H. stepped softly into the room through the back door. Henry P sat facing Doc and he stiffened and turned pale as he yelled, "Hell's fire - Doc H.!"
Jim P. swiveled around in his chair to look at Doc. "Thought you's in Texas, Doc." Andy G's shifty eyes swept over the whole room. Doc H. stood with drawn revolver in a one hand and a rifle in the other, As the renegades studied his face, they read their doom.
"I just been to a double funeral, boys, that woman you stabbed was pregnant. The baby was born dead."
Doc's voice was more of a drawl than usual as he stood poised. Henry P. tried another way, "Hell, Doc. It ain't your fight". Doc's eyes flashed Devil's fire, "I'm making it mine," he rasped.
After this episode, the three renegades were never seen again. Later on, Doc headed for Texas, and some say he became a Texas ranger. Another rumor was that he drowned while attempting to swim with his horse across a flooed Red River. He was never seen again in Arkansas.
If you have something you can add, please send it to me and allow me to add it to the database.
Good Luck,
Herb Gillham
More Replies:
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Re: Any family stories about Phillip Phagan Gillham?
Barbara McCarthy 5/03/05
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Re: Any family stories about Phillip Phagan Gillham?
Herbert Gillham 5/04/05
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Re: Any family stories about Phillip Phagan Gillham?