Thomas Wharton Phillips Jr. (November 21, 1874 – January 2, 1956) was a Republican member of the

U.S. House of Representatives The United States House of Representatives, often referred to as the House of Representatives, the U.S. House, or simply the House, is the lower chamber of the United States Congress, with the Senate being the upper chamber. Together they ...

from

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...

Early life

Phillips was born in New Castle, Pennsylvania on November 21, 1874. He was the son of Pamphila (

née A birth name is the name of a person given upon birth. The term may be applied to the surname, the given name, or the entire name. Where births are required to be officially registered, the entire name entered onto a birth certificate or birth re ...

Hardman) Phillips (1844–1933) and

Thomas Wharton Phillips Thomas Wharton Phillips (February 23, 1835 – July 21, 1912) was a Republican member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Pennsylvania. Early life Phillips was born near Mount Jackson, Pennsylvania, in that section of Beaver County, Pennsyl ...

(1835–1912), who also served as a Republican member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Pennsylvania, and later, was appointed a member of the United States Industrial Commission by President

William McKinley William McKinley (January 29, 1843September 14, 1901) was the 25th president of the United States, serving from 1897 until his assassination in 1901. As a politician he led a realignment that made his Republican Party largely dominant in ...

. Through his father, he was a descendant of a pastor who founded the

Congregational Church Congregational churches (also Congregationalist churches or Congregationalism) are Protestant churches in the Calvinist tradition practising congregationalist church governance, in which each congregation independently and autonomously runs its ...

in New England in the 18th Century. He graduated from

Phillips Academy ("Not for Self") la, Finis Origine Pendet ("The End Depends Upon the Beginning") Youth From Every Quarter Knowledge and Goodness , address = 180 Main Street , city = Andover , state = Ma ...

Andover, Massachusetts Andover is a town in Essex County, Massachusetts, United States. It was settled in 1642 and incorporated in 1646."Andover" in ''The New Encyclopædia Britannica''. Chicago: Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 15th ed., 1992, Vol. 1, p. 387. As of th ...

, in 1894 and from the

Sheffield Scientific School Sheffield Scientific School was founded in 1847 as a school of Yale College in New Haven, Connecticut, for instruction in science and engineering. Originally named the Yale Scientific School, it was renamed in 1861 in honor of Joseph E. Sheffield, ...

Yale University Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wo ...

in 1897, where he was a member of the

Chi Phi Fraternity Chi Phi () is considered by some as the oldest American men's college social fraternity that was established as the result of the merger of three separate organizations that were each known as Chi Phi. The earliest of these organizations was for ...

Career

He was engaged in the

petroleum Petroleum, also known as crude oil, or simply oil, is a naturally occurring yellowish-black liquid mixture of mainly hydrocarbons, and is found in geological formations. The name ''petroleum'' covers both naturally occurring unprocessed crud ...

natural gas Natural gas (also called fossil gas or simply gas) is a naturally occurring mixture of gaseous hydrocarbons consisting primarily of methane in addition to various smaller amounts of other higher alkanes. Low levels of trace gases like carbo ...

, and

coal Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock, formed as rock strata called coal seams. Coal is mostly carbon with variable amounts of other elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen. Coal is formed when dea ...

businesses, taking over his father's business in 1912. He was a delegate to the

1916 Republican National Convention Events Below, the events of the First World War have the "WWI" prefix. January * January 1 – The British Royal Army Medical Corps carries out the first successful blood transfusion, using blood that had been stored and cooled. * J ...

. Phillips was elected as a Republican to the Sixty-eighth and Sixty-ninth Congresses, and did not seek renomination for Congress in

1926 Events January * January 3 – Theodoros Pangalos declares himself dictator in Greece. * January 8 **Abdul-Aziz ibn Saud is crowned King of Hejaz. ** Crown Prince Nguyễn Phúc Vĩnh Thuy ascends the throne, the last monarch of V ...

. While in Congress, he was a bitter opponent of

Prohibition Prohibition is the act or practice of forbidding something by law; more particularly the term refers to the banning of the manufacture, storage (whether in barrels or in bottles), transportation, sale, possession, and consumption of alcoholic ...

. He was an unsuccessful candidate for the Republican nomination for

Governor A governor is an administrative leader and head of a polity or political region, ranking under the head of state and in some cases, such as governors-general, as the head of state's official representative. Depending on the type of political ...

in 1926, 1930, and 1934.

Post Congress

After his service in Congress, he resumed his former occupation and was president of the Phillips Gas and Oil Co., serving for forty-four years. He was also a director of the Butler Consolidated Coal Co., and the Pennsylvania Investment and Real Estate Corp., of Butler, Pennsylvania.

Personal life

Phillips was married to Alma Janet Sherman (1882–1945). Alma was the daughter of Roger Sherman, a noted lawyer in

Western Pennsylvania Western Pennsylvania is a region in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania, covering the western third of the state. Pittsburgh is the region's principal city, with a metropolitan area population of about 2.4 million people, and serves as its economic ...

, and Alma Caroline (née Seymour) Sherman. Together, they were the parents of six children, five of whom lived to maturity: * Janet Sherman Phillips (b. 1909), who married Leander McCormick-Goodhart (1884–1965), son of Frederick E. McCormick-Goodhart and grandson of

Leander J. McCormick Leander James McCormick (February 8, 1819 – February 20, 1900) was an American inventor, manufacturer, philanthropist, and businessman and a member of the McCormick family of Chicago and Virginia. Along with his elder brothers Cyrus and William ...

, in 1928. * Katherine Phillips (b. 1910), who married Lucien Gerard van Hoorn, the Dutch

chargé d'affaires A ''chargé d'affaires'' (), plural ''chargés d'affaires'', often shortened to ''chargé'' (French) and sometimes in colloquial English to ''charge-D'', is a diplomat who serves as an embassy's chief of mission in the absence of the ambassador ...

to Austria and Hungary, in 1932. She later married British doctor Frederick L. Rutgers in 1942. * Alma Phillips (1913–1913), who died in infancy. * Margaret Sherman Phillips (1914–1990), who married Augustus Craig Succop in 1934. * Thomas Wharton Phillips III (b. ). * Roger Sherman Phillips (1922–1969), who married Virginia Dickson (1922–2011) in 1943. He later married Jeannie Kay DeKlyn (1938–2008), a daughter of Dr. Ward Benedict DeKlyn. After the death of his first wife in 1945, he remarried the following year to Greta W. Schoenwald. Greta, a

mezzo-soprano A mezzo-soprano or mezzo (; ; meaning "half soprano") is a type of classical female singing voice whose vocal range lies between the soprano and the contralto voice types. The mezzo-soprano's vocal range usually extends from the A below middle C ...

soloist, was a faculty member at Bethany College in

West Virginia West Virginia is a state in the Appalachian, Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States.The Census Bureau and the Association of American Geographers classify West Virginia as part of the Southern United States while the Bur ...

from 1955 to 1958. He died at his mansion, Phillips Hall, on Butler Plank Road in Penn Township,

Butler County, Pennsylvania Butler County is a county in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. It is part of Western Pennsylvania. As of the 2020 census, the population was 193,763. Its county seat is Butler. Butler County was created on March 12, 1800, from part of Alleghe ...

on January 2, 1956. After a funeral at the North Street Church of Christ, where he was a member, he was buried in North Cemetery in Butler, Pennsylvania.

References

External links

*
The Political Graveyard
{{DEFAULTSORT:Phillips, Thomas Wharton Jr. 1874 births 1956 deaths Republican Party members of the United States House of Representatives from Pennsylvania Burials in Pennsylvania