Phillis, Alonzo
Alonzo M. Phillis
Stoddard, NH and Temple, NH
During the 1850s, Stoddard, NH, became home to a mixed race family from Middlesex County, Massachusetts. Alonzo Phillis, a Black male, resettled in southwest New Hampshire with his white wife, Louise Miller. In Stoddard, the Phillis family worked their own farm and raised a family.
Alonzo Phillis was originally from the Concord, MA, area. He was born in about 1820 to Peter and Jenny (Mitchell) Phillis. Alonzo’s grandfather, Pomp Phillis, had served in the American Revolution during the 1770s and the family continued to live in Middlesex County following the war. Alonzo’s father had been a cooper by trade, a craftsman who produced wooden casks, barrels, buckets, tubs, and similar containers. It is a trade that was passed down to Alonzo and one that Alonzo, in turn, would pass along to his own son.
By the time Alonzo Phillis was 25 years old, he was working as a cooper on the farm of Daniel Bills in Townsend, MA. Next door lived the white family of John Bills including his wife Louisa (Alonzo’s future wife), Mary J. (6), Homer A. (2), and Abner A. (8 months). John and Louisa (Miller) Bills had been married for about 4 years by the 1850 census. Unfortunately, John Bills died in 1853 in Brookline, NH. Left with two young children and a step-child Martha, Louise entered into a relationship with her neighbor, Alonzo Phillis.
The couple quickly moved out of Massachusetts and into southwest New Hampshire to start a new life. Daughter Martha J. Phillis was born in June 1854 in Stoddard. Son Alvin H. Phillis was born in Stoddard, NH, in April 1857; daughter Betsy J. Phillis soon followed in June 1859.
The 1860 census documents the Phillis family’s presence in the community. At 40-years old, Alonzo Phillis was head of household and working as a farmer. The family owned about $40 in personal estate and no value was assigned to real estate, indicating they may have been tenant farmers. Wife Louise was 39-years old and home with the children: Martha (6), Alvin (2) and Betsey J. (1). Also living in the household were Louise’s children from her former marriage: Homer Bills (13) and Harris Bills (11). Both Bills children and daughter Martha attended school at the time.
The Phillis family remained in Stoddard for about seven or eight years before returning to Townsend, MA. Alonzo Phillis appears in the 1865 Massachusetts census as a cooper, a legal voter, and a ratable taxpayer. The four children all attended school in Townsend into the 1870s.
In 1879, their 27-year old daughter Betsy J. Phillis married a white man named Joseph F. Richardson in Temple, NH. Betsey was working as a housekeeper in Temple at the time and had met a local laborer from the area. Her marriage may have prompted the rest of Betsy’s family to move to New Hampshire once again.
The 1880 census reveals that Alonzo and Louise Phillis lived in Temple, NH, next door to their daughter Betsy (Phillis) Richardson, son-in-law Joseph Richardson, and 3 month old granddaughter Minnie E. Richardson. Alonzo, at the age of 60, was working as a farmer. His wife Louise had a medical condition that left her paralyzed and at home. Their son Alvin was 23-years old and assisting his father with the farming. Daughter Martha, at age 26 was married to a man named Pearson; and, at the time that the census taker was visiting, Martha was visiting her parents with her two-year old daughter Lillie M. Pearson.
Throughout the 1890s, Alonzo and Louise Phillis witnessed the death of their daughter Betsy (1890), the marriage of their daughters Addie (1894) and Harriet (1896), and the birth of grandchildren. Alonzo M. Phillis died in Temple, NH, at the age of 75 on April 11, 1896. He is buried in the Temple Cemetery. Louise (Miller) Phillis died five years later around 1901.
GENEALOGICAL SUMMARY
ALONZO M. PHILLIS was born in 1820 to Peter and Jane Phillis in Middlesex, MA. He married LOUISE MILLER in 1853 or 1854. They had: Martha (1854-), Alvin (1858-1957), Betsy J. (1859-1890), and Addie (1861-1894), and Harriet S. (1862-1897). Alonzo Phillis died in Temple, NH in 1896 and his wife Louise died around 1901.
MARTHA PHILLIS was born in Townsend, MA in 1854. She married William D. Pearson. They had: Lydia M. Pearson in 1878. Martha died
LYDIA M. PEARSON was born in MA in 1878. She married Edwin A. Hazard in Leominster, MA, in 1896. [marriage record indicates Edwin’s parents were Nauhum Hazard and Harriet Phillis.]
ALVIN HAZELTON PHILLIS was born in Townsend, MA, in 1858. Alvin married Alice Naomi Saunders in 1911. They had: Clara (1912-1912). He died in Temple, NH in 1957.
BETSY J. PHILLIS was born in Stoddard, NH, in 1859. She married Joseph Richardson in Temple, NH, in 1879. They had: Minnie E. Richardson (1878-1896). Betsy died in 1890 in Fitzwilliam, NH.
ADDIE PHILLIS was born in Stoddard, NH, in 1861. She married Forest C. Knight in 1894 in Temple, NH (although records also say he married her sister Harriet).
HARRIET S. PHILLIS was born in Stoddard, NH, in 1862. She married Forest C. Knight in Temple, NH, in 1894.??[no marriage record has been found] They had: Forest Knight (1894). She died in 1897.
SOURCE MATERIALS
Find-a-Grave
Massachusetts Census Records, 1865- Ancestry.com
Massachusetts Vital Records, Births, Fitchburg, 1876- Ancestry.com
Massachusetts Vital Records, Deaths, Cambridge, 1900- Ancestry.com
Massachusetts Vital Records, Marriages, Cambridge, 1911- Ancestry.com
Massachusetts Vital Records, Marriages, Boston, 1891- Ancestry.com
New Hampshire Vital Records, Births, Temple, 1894- Ancestry.com
New Hampshire Vital Records, Births, Stoddard, 1854, 1858, 1859, 1861, 1862- Ancestry.com
New Hampshire Vital Records, Deaths, Brookline, 1853- Ancestry.com
New Hampshire Vital Records, Deaths, Fitzwilliam, 1890- Ancestry.com
New Hampshire Vital Records, Deaths, Temple, 1896, 1897, 1901- Ancestry.com
New Hampshire Vital Records, Marriages, Manchester, 1848- Ancestry.com
New Hampshire Vital Records, Marriages, Seabrook, 1958- Ancestry.com
New Hampshire Vital Records, Marriages, Swanzey, 1875- Ancestry.com
New Hampshire Vital Records, Marriages, Temple, 1879, 1894- Ancestry.com
"Temple News," The Peterborough Transcript, December 26, 1940, p.2.
U.S. Federal Census Records, 1870, 1880, 1900, 1910, 1920, 1930, 1940, 1950- Ancestry.com