| Notes |
- marriage record
Name Nancy Ward
Gender Female
Birth Place VA
Spouse Name Eli Shadrach Phipps
Spouse Birth Place VA
Spouse Birth Year 1812
Marriage Year 1835
Marriage State IN
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- note on Find a Grave:
Eli Shadrach Phipps was the son of Jesse Phipps and Jennie (Spurlin) Phipps and the husband of (1) Nancy (Ward) Phipps and (2) Rebecca Ann (Griffith) Phipps. By Nancy he was the father of Patia (Phipps) Winters, Emily Jane (Phipps) Phipps, David Phipps, and Nancy Phipps. By Rebecca he was the father of Lennie Phipps, Jane B. (Phipps) Hyatt, William Franklin Phipps, Cora Ellen (Phipps) Stinson, Minnie (Phipps) Stinson, Charles Phipps, and Louis Phipps. He went to California during the Gold Rush, and later settled in Boone Co., Iowa.
[1]
- Twins Parted By Death After Lapse of Century
Oklahoma City, Okla., Feb. 24. - The unexpected death yesterday at Hennessy, Okla., of Eli Phipps, aged 108 years, stopped him from going to Shenanhoah, Iowa, to pay a last visit to his twin brother there. The brothers were born on St. Valentine's day, February 14, 1803, and were probably the oldest living pair of twins in the world and among the world's oldest inhabitants.
The Register, Santa Ana, California. Friday, 24 February 1911, page 1.
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- A Pioneer of Many States
Brief History of Life of Eli Phipps, Deceased, Oldest Man in Southwest
Eli Phipps, undoubtedly the oldest man in Oklahoma and the southwest, and a resident of Kingfisher county for the past seventeen years, who passed away at the home of his daughter, Mrs. George Stinson, in this city last Thursday, February 23, 1911, at the age of 108 years and eight days, has had a varied career of more than passing interest.
Eli Phipps and a twin brother, John Phipps, who resides at Shennadoah, Iowa, were born February 14, 1903, at Affinghton, Washington county, Virginia. Their parents were Mr. and Mrs. Jesse Phipps and they had one sister, Nancy Taylor who died of fever after marriage in California many years ago.
When at the age of seventeen Mr. Phipps with his parents started westward by wagon to Indiana, which was then considered the extreme frontier. But when reaching Kentucky were delayed three months due to an epidemic of cholera, but later resumed their journey settling on a piece of land at Bloomington, Indiana, where a number of years after the mother died of general break down at the age of ninety three years. In 1853 the family moved on a farm in Puttman county, Missouri, at which place the father succumbed to the then most dreaded disease - small pox - his years numbering 111. It is gathered from these facts that the most pronounced characteristic of the Phipps family was their longevity.
Eli Phipps was married in 1835 in Indiana to Nancy Ward, and three children were born to them - Mrs. Patia Winters, of Frazier, Iowa; Emily Phipps, Alton, Mo, and David Phipps, Fay, Okla. His wife died in 1845 and leaving the children to the care of his brother Mr. Phipps visited many parts of the United states and even made a perilous journey to Canada. During the memorable gold excitement of 1849 in California he made that most difficult trip across the plains amassing considerable wealth in that state. With a partner, Judge Wyatt, he went to Colorado during the early settlement of that state and introduced the first steam power saw mill ever operated in that part of the country and for nine months sawed lumber which was used in the erection of the first building of the city of Denver. He returned to Missouri later and in 1860 was married to Rebecca Griffith, at Marysville. Seven children, one dying in infancy, blessed this union. The living are Mrs. Jennie Hyatt, Hennessey; Wm. Phipps, Boone, Iowa; Mrs. Cora Stinson and Mrs. Minnie Stinson, of Hennessey; Charles Phipps, Boone, Iowa; Lewis Phipps, Hennessey.
Mr. Phipps' next move was to Boone, Iowa, where he purchased land and owing to the fact that there were no banks in the locality in those days, was quite prominent as a money lender for many years. Again experiencing the westward fever he came to Oklahoma in 1895, locating four miles southwest of town coming to town about eighteen months ago. He was a Christian taking an optimistic view of life claiming the only way to live long and happy is to follow the teachings of nature. A remarkable feature of Mr. Phipps' life was his splendid health, having never had a physician until his last illness which was only of a few days' duration.
Funeral services were held from the Baptist church Saturday afternoon, Rev. JG. Schlieman officiating. Out of town relatives attending were three sons of deceased, William and Charles of Boone, Iowa, and David of Fay, Okla., and a nephew Willis Phipps, of the latter place.
Interment was made in the Hennessey cemetery.
Hennessey Clipper, Hennessey, Oklahoma. Thursday, 2 March 1911.
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- Remarkable Twins Celebrate in Iowa
Ninety-eighth Anniversary of Eli and J.M. Phipps - One was Falsely Accuse.
Shenandoah, Ia., May 24. = Recently John M. Phipps and his brother, Eli, were ninety-eight years old - the oldest twin brothers, probably, in the United States, if not in the world.
John M. Phipps lives with his son, A.S. Phipps, on a farm near Shenandoah, and his brother in Oklahoma, but Eli came to visit John and they celebrated their joint birthday.
Eli was here a few years ago and was frequently mistaken for John, for they look so much alike that their intimate friends can not distinguish them.
They were born in 1812 in Washington county, Virginia. This date conveys little impression on the mind unless one stops to make comparison. It was a few months before the declaration of was against England, in 1912. It was before the battle of Waterloo was fought. Before the fall of Tecumseh, the famous Indian chief, who fought the government at the head of the allied tribes in Indiana, Ohio and Michigan while Indiana was the western frontier. It was before Fulton built his United States steam boat; long before railroads, or telegraph or electricity were thought of. He lacked but one year of being old enough to vote for Andrew Jackson for president. During the lives of the remarkable twins the world has moved forward more than in all the eighteen hundred years of the Christian era before.
John M. married late in life, at thirty, but even thus his marriage dates back to three years before the Mexican war. He married Mary E. Long on February 27, 1842, and through this marriage is shown the relationship to O.S. Long the merchant of this city. Mrs. Phipps died on October 1, 1907, after a wedded life of sixty-five years.
Mr. Phipps came to Iowa about 1836, then years before its admission to the Union, and when the only population was a fringe of settlements along the navigable rivers. He has been a farm all his life, but living for a time i Missouri and Nebraska and then coming back to Iowa and settling near Farragut about thirty years ago, where he has since resided. He came here from near Independence, MO.
His son says of him that he has always been a farmer and lived much out of doors. He almost invariably took his nap at noon daily. He has been a great lover of corn bread and buttermilk and plain food generally, and never used tobacco or intoxicating liquors or opiates of any kind. So fond is he of outdoor life and getting close to nature that he goes much in his bare feet, even in winter time wading in the snow barefoot and bathing his feet in coldest water, cutting the ice to do so. He prefers to sleep inaa cold room. He can scarcely be kept indoors as long as necessary when not feeling well, but has not had many bad sicknesses in his life. In fact, he knows of but one spell of fever, and that was when he was a young man. He believes in visiting his neighbors in the old fashioned way - spending the whole day.
Mr. Phipps has been a great man to ask questions, but always reticent to talk about himself. Regarding his early life he will seldom talk, although he could, no doubt, tell incidents and experiences enough to make an interesting book.
This reticence, or modesty, brought his notoriety a few years ago that proved amusing after it was over. Miss Ida Tarbell, a magazine writer, stated that William Rockefeller, father of John D. Rockefeller, was living under an assumed name in obscurity in Iowa, and the Chicago papers undertook to find him. They got a clew that the old man was living near Shenandoah, and reporters were sent here from Chicago to hunt him up. There was no one here of the right age to till the description except Uncle John Phipps, and for two or three days they labored with the problem of proving that Phipps and Rockefeller were the same person. They drove to his home before daylight and pestered the old gentleman with questions by the hundred, trying to get him to admit that he was William Rockefeller.
:Me the father of old Rockefeller? No, sir!" he exclaimed, and the incident has been a sore spot i his memory every since.
The Republic, Columbus, Indiana. Wednesday, 25 May, 1910, page 2.
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1803 - 1911 (108 years)
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