William A. Phillips

{{Infobox officeholder

|name = William Addison Phillips

|image = William Addison Phillips (Kansas Congressman).jpg

|state1 = Kansas

|district1 = at-large

|term_start1 = March 4, 1873

|term_end1 = March 3, 1875

|preceded1 = David Perley Lowe

|succeeded1 = Seat redistricted as 1st District

|state2 = Kansas

|district2 = 1st

|term_start2 = March 4, 1875

|term_end2 = March 3, 1879

|preceded2 = Redistricted from At-large district

|succeeded2 = John Alexander Anderson

|office3 = Member of the Kansas House of Representatives

|term3 = 1865

|party = Republican

|birth_date = {{birth date|1824|1|14}}

|birth_place = Paisley, Scotland

|death_date = {{death date and age|1893|11|30|1824|1|14}}

|death_place = Fort Gibson, Oklahoma

|restingplace = Salina, Kansas

|restingplacecoordinates =

|alma_mater =

|spouse =

|children =

|signature = Signature of William Addison Phillips (1824–1893).png

|allegiance = United States

|branch = Union Army

|serviceyears =1862–1865

|rank = 30px Colonel

|unit =3rd Indian Home Guard

|battles = American Civil War

}}

William Addison Phillips (1824–1893) was a Free-State Abolitionist journalist during the "Bleeding Kansas" period. He also served in the Civil War, ending the war as a colonel.

Biography

Born in Paisley, Scotland, Phillips attended the common schools of Paisley.

He immigrated to the United States in 1838 with his parents, who settled in Randolph County, Illinois. He engaged in agricultural pursuits. He was employed as a newspaper correspondent 1845–1862. He studied law. He was admitted to the bar in 1855 and commenced practice in Lawrence, Kansas, working also as a correspondent for the New York Tribune. He was first justice of the Kansas Supreme Court under the Leavenworth Constitution. In 1858, he settled and founded the city of Salina, Kansas with a wagon circle against constant threat by hostile tribes.{{cite news |newspaper= The Salina Journal | first=Carol | last=Lichti | title= On Hallowed Ground : Story of Indian Rock and Lakewood |url= https://www.newspapers.com/clip/45498564/story-of-indian-rock-and-lakewood/ | via=Newspapers.com | url-access=registration | access-date= December 1, 2021 |location= Salina, Kansas |date= February 25, 1996 |page= 47 |quote= As news of the battle spread, the potential for settlement lured Phillips, who was in Lawrence, to return to the area where Salina would be founded. }}{{cite web|title=Salina History|publisher=City of Salina, Kansas|url=http://www.ci.salina.ks.us/content/120/144/default.aspx| url-status=dead | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140305214358/http://www.ci.salina.ks.us/content/120/144/default.aspx | archive-date=March 5, 2014 | access-date=March 5, 2014}} During the American Civil War, though offered a large sum to be a correspondent at the front, he entered the Union Army as a volunteer, and raised some of the first troops in Kansas in 1861. He was a major in the 1st Indian Home Guard. He was promoted to colonel and served as commander of the Cherokee Indian Regiment in the 3rd Indian Home Guard.{{cite web | title=William Addison Phillips | publisher=Kansas Historical Society | url=https://www.kshs.org/kansapedia/william-addison-phillips/16923 | access-date=April 10, 2022}} He served as prosecuting attorney of Cherokee County in 1865. He served in the state House of Representatives in 1865.

He was elected as a Republican to the Forty-third, Forty-fourth, and Forty-fifth Congresses (March 4, 1873 – March 3, 1879). He was an unsuccessful candidate for renomination in 1878. After leaving Congress, he was attorney for the Cherokee Indians at Washington, D.C. He was an unsuccessful candidate for election to Congress in 1890. He died at Fort Gibson, Muskogee County, Indian Territory (now Oklahoma), November 30, 1893.

He was interred in Gypsum Hill Cemetery, Salina, Kansas.

The city of Phillipsburg, Kansas was named in honor William A. Phillips.