TOP ROW: Marion Helen Guilliams and Gertrude Phillips; Will Phillips; Will Phillips; Marion Helen Guilliams BOTTOM ROW: Four photographs of Gertrude Phillips, daughter of Joseph Harmon Phillips and Marion Helen Guilliams
A ghostly, faded photograph of the crime scene in Paola, Kansas, the house where Will Phillips was shot by a burglar. The caption on the back is in the handwriting of his granddaughter, my Aunt Eleanor.
1878 map of Miami County, Kansas, showing the route of the Missouri, Kansas & Texas Railroad into Paola from the east. Will Phillips took the train from Kansas City on the fateful night of Sunday, January 16, 1888. The scheduled arrival time was 11:00 P.M. When he entered his house, Will was shot to death by a burglar. His widow collected on a life insurance policy, and also upon traveler's insurance that was good until midnight. No doubt she had to struggle to collect, having to prove that the shooting occurred before midnight.
A map published by the United States Department of the Interior in the 1920s, showing what once was an impressive network of passenger train routes across the heartland of America. Paola was a stop on the St. Louis, Iron Mountain & Southern route from Kansas City to New Orleans, and was the junction with the Missouri Pacific line to Pueblo, Colorado. There were five east-west routes across the State of Kansas alone. Today there is only one and, (unlike January 16, 1888), the trains seldom run on time. For more documentation of Phillips ancestry click: PHILLIPS CEMETERY PLOT RECORDS OF JAMES A. PHILLIPS OBITUARY OF JOSEPH HARMON PHILLIPS JAMES AND JOSEPH'S TRAIL WILL OF STEPHEN PHILLIPS For text of research go to next page. Contact: richardhayesphillips@yahoo.com