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The
Travels of D. D.
Duvall Drake Phillips
(1822-1890) |
Duvall
Drake (D.D.) Phillips, son of Gabriel and Fanny Cooper Phillips,
was born on May 1st 1822, in Mason County, Kentucky. By the time
he was 7, his family had moved to Missouri, first to Lincoln County
and then to Pike County. After a six-month business trip to Kentucky
for his father at the age of 20 , he returned to Missouri and married
Amelia Ann Kennedy in May 1843. In the next four years the family
had grown with George Washington born in 1845 and Gabriel Duvall
born in 1847, a day ending in tragedy as Amelia died in childbirth.
Despondent, D. D. left his young sons with his parents and enlisted
in Company E, 3rd Regiment, Missouri Mounted Volunteers. Part of
his duties included being dispatched as one of 28 men to accompany
Kit Carson, who was a dispatch carrier to General Kearney in California.
In Santa Fe, New Mexico he and other volunteers waited until the
arrival of their respective commanders, after which they proceeded
into Mexico and fought in the battle of Santa Cruz in the State
of Chihuahua under the command of Sterling Price.
After the war ended in 1848 he returned to Missouri and headed west
in the spring of 1849 hearing of the discovery of gold in California.
He and three cousins arrived in Hangtown (Placerville) on September
1, 1849. He spent his time in the Salmon Falls and Weber Creek areas
as a miner (un-successfully) and in the construction of dams, tunnels,
canals, and flumes.
In January 1855 D. D. married Mary Carter Terry McCloud. She had
come west with her husband William J. McCloud in 1852. After he
died, she supported herself and her young son by operating a boardinghouse
in or near Placerville.
In the fall of 1855, D. D. and his new partner (a former partner
of Wm. McCloud), Samuel O. Heaton traveled to Sonoma County and
attempted to buy a portion of the Tzabaco Rancho from the heirs
of José German Piña. They were not willing to sell
at that time. But in 1856, after a year of drought and crop-damaging
fires, the Piñas agreed to sell to Sam and D. D.
Moving to Healdsburg with Mary's son William S. McCloud and their
first-born John Walton, Mary and D. D. settled into the old adobe
(6630 Dry Creek Rd.) to raise their young family. By 1867, six more
children had been born, two dying in infancy. Also in 1867, Samuel
and D. D. decided to dissolve their partnership and divided the
property equally.
A
Few Quick Facts
-
1843/May
- D. D. Phillips marries Amelia Ann Kennedy in Missouri; .D.
D. and Amelia have two sons
-
1843/Sept
- José German Piña petitions the Mexican Government
for 4 square leagues of land (about 17,000 acres) to be known
as Tzabaco Rancho
-
1847
- Amelia dies during the birth of their second son Gabriel Duvall
-
1847-1848
- D. D. serves in the Mexican-American War
-
1849
- D. D. arrives in Placerville with three cousins
-
1855
- D. D. marries Mary Carter Terry McCloud in Placerville; D.
D. and Mary have six sons and one daughter
-
1855
- Tzabaco Rancho confirmed by Land Commission at 15,439 acres
-
1856
- D. D. Phillips and SO Heaton sign deed for 137¼ acres
and the adobe in Dry Creek Valley for $1112.82½
The
Piñas and their Rancho Tzabaco
José German Piña was the son of a Mexican soldier,
born at Mission San Francisco de Asís (Mission Dolores in
San Francisco) in 1829. By the time he was 11 years old he was scouting
for potential rancho land in the Russian River valley. At the perhaps
not-so-tender age of 14, in September 1843 he made a successful
petition to Governor Micheltorena in Monterey for a tract of 4 square
leagues (about 17,000 acres) to be known as the Tzabaco Rancho.
The origin of the adobe which was at the heart of his new grant
is not fully understood. One theory is that the adobe is, in fact,
the fortification that General Mariano Vallejo caused to be established
in 1833 "somewhere in the Russian River valley" - an outpost
that lasted only a month. Supporting this idea is the fact that
a cannon and several 2-pound cannon balls were found on the property
during the early twentieth century. The conservative theory is that
the adobe was built in 1843 by the Piña family as the headquarters
of their new rancho.
When German, also known as "Chino" ("curly haired"),
settled on his rancho his older brother José de Jesus and
several other family members joined him. The diseño (map)
which accompanied the grant identified the rio (Dry Creek), Rio
Grande (Russian River), siembre (grain fields), and milpas (seeded
field) among other notations.
One year later, in 1844, German's mother died and in 1847 German's
father Lazaro was killed at the Battle of Cerro Gordo in Mexico
under the leadership of Santiana. At eighteen years of age in 1847,
José German Piña died of unknown cause at Mission
San Francisco de Solano in Sonoma. Everything German did seemed
to belie his age - scouting for land, petitioning for rancho land,
establishing the Tzabaco Rancho. Even his will spelled out his possessions,
debts, and debtees - although just passing mention is made of his
rancho. He even identified a trade for the horses to pull his hearse.
With increasing family debt by 1850, a portion of the rancho was
sold at public auction. Squatters settled on other parts of their
land. After the murder of German's brother Antonio in 1853, the
remaining four brothers, for $20,000 compensation, signed over their
interest in the rancho to John Frisbie, an American entrepreneur
who
was acting as the attorney for the Piñas. However, the contract
would not take effect for 5 years. The Land Commission spent the
years 1852-1855 reviewing the validity of Tzabaco Rancho, which
was finally confirmed at 15,439 acres.
In 1855 partners Samuel O. Heaton and Duvall Drake Phillips journeyed
to Sonoma County to survey land for purchase. It is not known why
they came specifically to Sonoma County. However, a close friend
of D. D.'s from his Missouri and Army days was Sterling Coulter
(later a prominent Sonoma County citizen) who had settled in the
Santa Rosa area in 1851. Rebuffed by the Piñas in 1855, Sam
and D. D. returned in October 1856 and successfully bought 137¼
acres of the Piña's Tzabaco Rancho for $1112. 82½
.
D.
D. Phillips of Dry Creek Valley
With
his new wife, their first-born son Philip Walton* and Mary's young
son, William S. McCloud, D. D. began making a life and living in
the Dry Creek Valley. They settled into the Piña Adobe and
soon other children were born: Samuel Edmund (1857), Oscar Frederick
(1858), Horace Hugh (1860), Henry (1861, died in infancy), Oliver
Clarence (1863), and Mary (1867, also died in infancy). Arriving
in California in 1865 at age 18 was Gabriel Duvall, D. D.'s second
son from his first marriage. Interestingly, all of D. D.'s sons
except for his first born (maybe with the name George Washington
Phillips that is understandable) went by their middle names: Duvall,
Walton, Ed, Fred, Hugh, and Clarence.
In 1867, Phillips and Heaton divided their property in equal parcels
of 68 acres, D. D. keeping the adobe and Heaton the more southerly
portion. At the time of the 1856 purchase, the adobe was only a
"fort", four walls, small portholes for windows, and a
low-slung doorway hung with bear-skins. Remodeling was done in the
1860s by James William Terry, Mary Phillips' brother, who had been
a ship's carpenter. The valley floor was then covered with large
oaks and madrones. Grain was the main crop for many years. Around
1870 grapes were planted; in the 1880s, prunes.
Three of Duvall Drake's sons died young: Hugh in 1889, Duvall (a
farmer in DCV) in 1890, and Clarence (a policeman in San Francisco)
in 1901. George, D. D.'s eldest son, moved from Missouri to California
in 1906, and became a Justice of the Peace and a well-known and
respected community leader. After D. D.'s death in 1904 the property
passed to his wife. Within a year of Mary's death in 1907, the three
remaining "California" sons (Walton, Ed, and Fred), divided
the property equally with Ed retaining the adobe and surrounding
property. In the 1930s Ed sold the adobe and land to his great-nephew,
Duvall's grandson Leon Hendricks. Clarence Martin purchased it from
Leon in 1950 and sold it to the Jasper Longs in 1968.
Walton retained the center portion of the now-divided property and
eventually the property vested with his son Major who raised prunes.
And the southerly portion continued being farmed by Fred.
By 2006, the descendants that have been tracked down number close
to one hundred and span from New Hampshire, Florida, Missouri, Texas,
Idaho, Washing-ton, Oregon, Nevada, and California. At this point,
only a few of George's descendants have been traced.
Tidbits
from Newspapers & Elsewhere
-
1846
- Joseph Revere, grandson of Paul Revere, visits "Chino"
at the Piña adobe
-
1853
- Burke Miles (uncle of Mary and Elizabeth Miles, the wives
of Walton and Fred) attends first funeral in Healdsburg, that
of George Heald.
-
1856
- Sam Heaton rides horseback into Hangtown for the doctor when
P. W. "Walton" Phillips* is born
-
1869
- D. D. appointed Constable of Mendocino Township
1878 - In the Russian River Flag - D. D. loses a red canoe in
the flood and asks for its return
-
1878
- G. Duvall Phillips kills a bald eagle, 6' wingspread
-
1879
- D. D. serves as Deputy Assessor of Sonoma County
-
1900
- D. D. buys a lot in town - NE ¼ of Lot 29 of Knaaks'
Addition - on Sherridan (now Fitch) Street
-
1902
- Woodmen of the World place a monument on the grave of O. C.
"Clarence" Phillips
-
1904
- S. E. "Ed" Phillips serves as Grand Marshal for
the Floral Carnival in Healdsburg
-
1914
- O. F. "Fred" Phillips buys a "Cole" automobile
-
1928
- George W. Phillips, at the age of 83, marries his fourth wife,
Emily Crowe
*** Many thanks to the hard work of Kay Schmidt Robinson for
assembling this history***
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