PHILLIPS Family

Another of my research interests is:


PHILLIPS FAMILY

Cornelius Sales Phillips and Sarah Caledonia Collett

(North Carolina, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona)





CHILDREN:

Theodore Cornelius (my great grandfather) - Spouse 1: Sarah Louise George - Spouse 2: Helen Merrill
Felix Clingman - Spouse: Carmen C. Woods
Lillian Gertrude - Spouse: James Collister
Dona Louise - Spouse:Earl E. Horr
Cora Agnes - Spouse: James T. Latham
James Lafayette - Spouse: Leona Maude Harte
?Selby Valdona?
Sylvester - Spouse: Unknown
Clarence Elmer - Mildred Della Collett
Jessie Issac - Spouse: Katherine Dillon
Carl Leonard - Spouse(s): Lupe and also possibly Leola E. Wilkinson
Herbert Harold - Spouse 1: Vila G. Reed - Spouse 2: Dorothy Irene Hill

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For years the family lived at Lake Valley, New Mexico - many of the children were born while they were there.

The mining town of Lake Valley was founded in 1878 after silver was discovered. Almost overnight, the small frontier town blossomed into a major settlement with a population of 4,000 people. Today, silver mining has played out and all that remains is a ghost town. 

A rancher found the Lake Valley silver deposits in Sierra County in 1876. Two years later he sold his claims to an engineer, who began mining.  The deposits are bedded manto-type deposits in Paleozoic limestone. The mines produced well for a few years after miners tunneled into a silver-lined cavity they named the “bridal chamber” that alone yielded 2.5 million troy ounces (78 tonnes) of silver.
In 1881 the property was sold to mine promoters George D. Roberts and Whitaker Wright, who split the property among five companies: Sierra Apache Co., Sierra Bella Co., Sierra Grande Co., Sierra Madre Co., and the Sierra Plata Co., and stock was sold widely in the east. Despite the brief wealth of the bridal chamber, shareholders in all five companies lost money.
In 1881, a party of Lake Valley miners formed a posse to pursue a band of Apaches that had raided the town of Hillsboro. The Apaches caught them in an ambush in the hills ten miles west of Lake Valley, and many, including the mine superintendent George Daley, were killed.
The bridal chamber was worked out by 1883. Although a railroad line reached Lake Valley in 1884, the mines struggled and were worked only periodically into the 20th century. Total production of the Lake Valley district through 1931 was 5.8 million ounces (180 tonnes) of silver.  The mines reopened during World War II to produce manganese, and continued operating into the 1950s. Lake Valley had a post office from 1882 until 1955.