ESQUIRE WILLIAM PHILLIPS
Yaphank
Yaphank As It Is and Was
Beecher Homan
1875
ESQUIRE WILLIAM PHILLIPS
A REVIEW--THE OLD SQUIRE'S PECULIARITIES
Time will not permit me to dwell lengthily on the biography of this lamented man, whose appellation forms the subject of this sketch.
He died as he had lived : in the bosom of his family, and high in the esteem of all who knew him.
Esquire Phillips was born in 1787, and died March 22,1858. His body reposes among the tombs of his fathers and friends in the Middle Island burying-ground.
A REVIEW.
Before he was married he worked in an uncles store as a clerk, in Connecticut. There he learned to drive sharp bargains, and became acquainted with the varied tastes, dispositions and characters of humanity generally.
When still young he came back to old Long Island, married, and settled down as a farmer. He owned an extensive and fertile farm, and, unlike our farmers of this age, the farm made him and he made the farm.
He speculated much in wood and other staple products of the time, and amassed quite a fortune. The 'Squire was a hard-working man ; hale and rugged.
He made his wealth by honest toil and enterprise, and he left four children a father's blessing, and honest name, and the fruits of honorable toil.
For many years prior to his death he suffered with a painful cancer, watch caused his death at last.
He was not a professing christian, but an exemplary moral man. His name would fittingly adorn the scroll of the good men of any time.
His son William, who bears his name, bares his reputation for the enterprise and industry. He has done more to benefit Yaphank then a dozen Augustus Floyds or Nathaniel Tuthills ever did or will.
Where the Country Alms House reared its leviathan frame, twenty-five years ago grew tall forest trees, and impenetrable undergrowth shut out of the howling wood. 'Squire Phillips purchased the tract, and cleared the land now known as the county farm.
Typed by,
Matthew Jackson