Joseph M. Phillips, of Kentucky & Kansas, Quits Work at Age 72
JOSEPH M. PHILLIPS QUITS WORK IN HIS SEVENTY-SECOND YEAR.
Has A Large Acquaintance In Meade and Breckenridge Counties.
Joseph M. Phillips was born in Washington County, Kentucky, Nov. 19, 1828. In this, his seventy-second year, he believes it is time for him to cease active life and to retire to the enjoyment of that which he has accumulated. Thursday he sold his membership in the Chicago Board of Trade for $1,750. The purchaser was Finlay, Barrell & Co.
"I am done with the markets," said Captain Phillips yesterday in his apartments in the Palmer House. "I think I have reached an age when I would best get out of business. I bought that membership in 1873 for $3,100. I sold it later for $1,500 and bought it back again for $1,150." Captain Phillips has had a career that would be of interest in a novel of the repressive school. He has been a captain and pilot on Mississippi River steamboats, a grain speculator, farmer, storekeeper and man of leisure. He knows the crooks and bends and sand bars of the Father of Waters and he knows the tricks of the Board of Trade.
The sale of his membership in the Board of Trade is the bulletin of his retirement from active commercial life. He has a wife but no children, and there are but few dependent on him. The captain has ideas in the manner of right living.
"A man should live largely as he was raised," he said. "Now, I was brought up on a farm, and the homely system of livelihood appeals to me. I think the ordinary man eats too much for his own good. I never spent more than $10,000 a year and the most of that is given away. I got to bed at 8 o'clock and get up at 6. I eat breakfast at 7 o'clock. This meal consists of mutton chops, a baked potato and coffee. My meal in the middle of the day is a fairly hearty one. I eat roast beef, potatoes and such things. In the evening I have a light meal. It consists of cereals largely.
"There is no need in eating tremendously, as most persons do. Pastry in quantities is bad. Let the people stick to plain foods and they will be vastly better off. When I was a young man the doctor and my friends said I would not live a year. When I was thirty-five years old I had copious hemorrhages and was a living skelton. I am 72 years old now and feel splendid.
"I have brothers - three of them. One is in Kansas and the others are in Kentucky. The one in Kansas is two years older than I am, and he is in perfect health. I was a farmer until I was 21 years old. Then I entered the mercantile business. I was married in 1854. My first wife died in 1893, and I was married again in 1894. I have been trading on the Chicago Board of Trade since 1873. I bought a membership there twenty years ago.
"Where is my home now?" Harvey County, Kansas. I have sixteen farms in that state. In Harvey County, I have 640 acres in one farm, and that is my home. I vote there. I am going, anyway, to claim that as my place of residence until I get another chance to vote for William McKinley for President."
Captain Phillips began his river career in 1850. He navigated the Mississippi and Ohio for many years. He was the captain of the steamer Louisiana from 1866 to 1868, and ran between New Orleans, Louisville and Cincinnati. In 1868 Captain Phillips moved to Cairo, Ill., and entered into a partnership with a man Halliday, the firm being Halliday & Phillips. The combination was one of the largest grain commission houses in the West. In 1885 Captain Phillips went to Memphis, where he opened a commission business under the name of Speed & Phillips. The partnership lasted until 1896, when Captain Phillips went to Kansas. - The Chicago Times.
Source: The Breckenridge News, Cloverport, Kentucky, Wednesday, June 20, 1900; Pg. Front Page
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Re: Joseph M. Phillips, of Kentucky & Kansas, Quits Work at Age 72
Mamie Foerster 2/23/10