Louis Phillips (April 22, 1830 – March 16, 1900) was a wealthy land owner and rancher in Los Angeles County, California..

Biography

Phillips was born Louis Galefsky to a Jewish family in Kempen, Province of Posen,

Prussia Prussia, , Old Prussian: ''Prūsa'' or ''Prūsija'' was a German state on the southeast coast of the Baltic Sea. It formed the German Empire under Prussian rule when it united the German states in 1871. It was ''de facto'' dissolved by an ...

(now

Kępno Kępno (german: Kempen in Posen) is a town in south-central Poland. It lies on the outskirts of the Greater Poland Voivodeship, bordering the historical region of Silesia and the Łódź Voivodeship. As of December 31, 2009 Kępno had a populati ...

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populou ...

) and moved to California in the early 1850s, changing his name to Phillips. He moved to Spadra (now part of Pomona) in 1862 and began engaging in sheep herding and cattle raising.

Frank Parkhurst Brackett Frank Parkhurst Brackett (June 16, 1865 – September 3, 1951) was an American professor of astronomy who taught at Pomona College. Biography Brackett was born in Provincetown, Massachusetts, the eldest son of Solomon Hoyt Brackett and Mary A ...

, 1920, ''History of Pomona Valley, California'', Historic Record Company, Los Angeles In 1864, Schlesinger and Tischler acquired the

Rancho San Jose Rancho or Ranchos may refer to: Settlements and communities *Rancho, Aruba, former fishing village and neighbourhood of Oranjestad *Ranchos of California, 19th century land grants in Alta California **List of California Ranchos *Ranchos, Buenos Ai ...

in a foreclosure. Phillips, who had previously been a manager on the ranch, bought out of the foreclosure. In January 1874, the Southern Pacific Railroad completed a rail line from Los Angeles to Spadra, spurring interest in land development in the area. In 1875, Phillips built the Phillips Mansion (now operated by the Historical Society of Pomona Valley) and also sold most of his for subdivision into the Pomona Tract, thus beginning the formation of Pomona. Phillips retained surrounding his mansion, which he operated as a cattle and sheep ranch. In 1867, Phillips married Esther Blake, with whom he had three sons (Charles, George and Louis, Jr.) and two daughters (Mrs. Frank George and adopted daughter, Kate Cecil). He also acquired large land holdings in other parts of the county, including the Los Angeles business district where he owned the Phillips Block on Spring Street, a block on Los Angeles Street and another on Third Street. By 1892, the ''Los Angeles Times'' reported that Phillips, "who lives so quietly out at Spadra, near Pomona," was "the richest man in Los Angeles County." The ''Times'' noted that Phillips was worth "not a dollar less than $3,000,000" and stated that, in addition to his land holdings in Los Angeles, he had a ranch that produced wool, honey and wheat. He died of

pneumonia Pneumonia is an inflammatory condition of the lung primarily affecting the small air sacs known as alveoli. Symptoms typically include some combination of productive or dry cough, chest pain, fever, and difficulty breathing. The severi ...

in 1900 and is interred at Spadra Cemetery, Pomona.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Phillips, Louis 1829 births 1900 deaths German emigrants to the United States Deaths from pneumonia in California Farmers from California Businesspeople from California People from Pomona, California

Biography

See also

References