From the Advertiser-Journal, April 30, 1925

Mr. John Phillips, one of the outstanding figures in the history of this section of Northwest Alabama, has passed away. Coming to Alabama before the outbreak of the Civil War, he joined the First Alabama Cavalry which was made up by many of the young farmers of this section and served through the war. After the war he settled near Thornhill and was a neighbor to the father of C.L. and W.W. Haley and to Andrew Mitchell and the late W.R. Long of Lynn. He saved some money by farming and then started a store at Thornhill. After leaving Thornhill he and the late Mel Allen of Phil Campbell operated the two Bell Allen thread factories run by the waters of Bear Creek. By hard work and thrift he saved enough to start business in Bear Creek where at one time he did a very large trade. By wise investments in land here and in Texas and other Western States, his fortune rapidly increased. He had a very simple life, extensive traveling being his only luxury. Mr. Phillips died last Saturday and was buried at Bear Creek on Sunday. A large number of friends and acquaintances swelled the attendance at funeral. He was born Oct. 18, 1837 in North Carolina and had been married twice and left a widow, Mary E. Phillips, and five daughters and five sons. They are Mrs. J.J. Coats, Martha Haley, and O.H. Phillips and Mrs. Belle Scharnagel, Mrs. Charles Srygley, Mrs. V.A. Wilson, J. Pickens, Dr. Veto, Oscar W., and Lucian L. Phillips. One daughter, Mrs. Susan Howell, mother of Clair Howell, had died some years ago. He was the oldest director on the board of the Traders and Farmers Bank and one of [the] charter members. Among some of his holdings is a one-tenth interest in 10,000 acres in the famed Rio Grand Valley in Texas. He was in his 88th year and was in Haleyville some two weeks ago and just a day or so before he had a paralytic stroke that proved fatal.