Nye Phillips was born May 5, 1842 in Trumbull County, Ohio. In 1850 and 1860, he was living in Trumbull County, Ohio. He enlisted as 1st Sergeant in Company C, 125th Ohio Volunteer Infantry on September 20, 1862.
He was commissioned 2nd Lieutenant on November 23, 1863. He was promoted to 1st Lieutenant on January 28, 1864 and transferred to Company I. He transferred to Regimental Staff first as the Quartermaster and then as Adjutant. He was promoted to Captain on February 10, 1864. He served on Brigadier General Updyke’s Staff as an Aide de Camp. He was mustered out of service on June 8, 1865 at Nashville, Tennessee.
Following the Civil War he went to Pit Hole, Pennsylvania and opened a mercantile business. Fire in the fall of 1865 destroyed everything except his team of horses and wagon. He returned to Ohio. Phillips headed west working on the railroad in Nebraska. In 1868, he secured a job at Fort D.H. Russell, Cheyenne, Wyoming. He returned home during the winter of 1868-1869 to attend a sister’s wedding. In the spring he planned to return to Wyoming. He stopped along the way at Fort Dakota, Dakota Territory, to see an old friend, Ed Broughton. Discovering the fort was to be abandoned he decided to stay. He lived in the abandoned barracks and roomed with Frank Pettigrew.
In 1870, he was a farmer living in Minnehaha County, Dakota Territory. He married Austie Wagner March 7, 1874 in Trumbull County, Ohio. In 1880, 1885 and 1890, he was living in Sioux Falls. Philips was the Register of Deeds of Minnehaha County from 1872-1876 and 1884-1892. He was a Trustee of the Village of Sioux Falls in 1878 and an Alderman in 1883, 1884. He served as the Warden of the South Dakota Penitentiary from 1893-1899. He was Sheriff of Minnehaha County 1905-1906. He was a Republican and served as a delegate to the National Convention in 1872 and in 1892. He was a member of the Joe Hooker Post No. 10, Grand Army of the Republic in Sioux Falls. He was a member of Minnehaha Lodge No. 5, Ancient Free & Accepted Masons, and the Episcopal Church. He died on December 20, 1927. His funeral was conducted by the Elks Lodge and was held at Miller Funeral Home. He was buried in Mt. Pleasant Cemetery.
Transcript
Lori Walsh: You're listening to In the Moment, I'm Lori Walsh. Throughout the months of March and April, we're looking at the histories of South Dakota's Civil War veterans. They were some of the first white people to homestead and establish permanent communities here. Some rose to prominence in business and politics. Many others lived out their lives in simpler ways, but all of them made an impact on the South Dakota we know today. Bill Hoskins is the Director of the Siouxland Heritage Museums in Sioux Falls and he joins me for today's images of the past. Welcome back, Bill.
Bill Hoskins: Hey, Lori. Great to be here.
Lori Walsh: We are going to talk about Nye Phillips and I think anybody from Sioux Falls recognizes the name Phillips because there's more than one thing named that. Are they named for Nye Phillips?
Bill Hoskins: Well, actually they're named for another Civil War veteran, Dr. Josiah Lake Phillips, whose family helped start the town companies in the 1850s. Nye Philips though, got here pretty early. He was born in Ohio, in Trumbull County in 1842. When the Civil War broke out, he joined an organization called the 125th Ohio Volunteer Infantry. He started off as a Sergeant and was, after a year or so, commissioned as a Second Lieutenant and worked up. It's really after the war, he has a very colorful war career, but after the war he wanders a little bit. In 1868, he hears a buddy from the Civil War, a guy named Ed Broughton, was at this place called Fort Dakota. Nye was on his way to a job at Fort DH Ruffle in Cheyenne, Wyoming today, and thought he'd stop off and see his Civil War friend. When he did, he discovered the army had abandoned Fort Dakota, and Nye Philips decided to stay and make his life here.
He would be the first Register of Deeds of Minnehaha County and held a variety of other offices, including a Trustee of the Village of Sioux falls. He was a city alderman for Sioux Falls, a warden of the penitentiary for a while, Sheriff of Minnehaha County. So he did a whole host of different things here in the community.
Lori Walsh: All right. So, I want to go back to what you said about him stopping off and saying that the army had abandoned this Fort. How does he stay? Where does he stay? Does he stay at the fort?
Bill Hoskins: Well, yeah, he did. He actually roomed in one of the rooms of the old barracks with a guy named Richard Franklin Pettigrew, who was also a early on. Pettigrew's got a really funny story. He said that they roomed together and that Nye did all the cooking and he tended to wipe the pans out on his trousers. And Pettigrew was saying, "Wow." And that worked fine until it got to be fall and the grease in the trousers started to stiffen up and one day Nye just left them, standing by themselves under a tree. Which is really a colorful story about the early frontier.
Lori Walsh: Where is the first time you came across that? Did he write a letter? Was that in a book? How has that story preserved, those kinds of stories?
Bill Hoskins: It's in the writings of Richard Franklin Pettigrew and wrote a series of articles for a magazine called The Sunshine State in the 1920s, sort of reminiscent of the past. Yeah, it's pretty funny.
Lori Walsh: Yeah. When you look at someone like Nye Phillips and all the positions that he held, whether it's the warden or the sheriff, but also the sort of the political and religious leadership, what kind of an impact does someone like that make when they come to a place that is a really new, to them, community that they're trying to build? I mean, it seems like these individuals have out sized influence because they're early, they're first, to them of course.
Bill Hoskins: During the civil war, he had actually served as his regiment adjutant. That's the guy who does all the paperwork and takes care of making sure everything works for the regiment. And so, I think he was used to that type of role as he got here to Sioux Falls and they needed a Register of Deeds, or they needed a County clerk. They needed someone to be on the council. And I think it was just the normal thing for him to step up and take some of those responsibilities.
Lori Walsh: Bill Hoskins is Director of the Siouxland Heritage Museums in Sioux Falls. You can find this story and more images of the past post on our website at sdpb.org. And do stop by the museum because these stories in the exhibits are just really peppered throughout with the great interpreters and docents and the great written interpretation, as well. So Bill, thank you so much. We appreciate your time.
Bill Hoskins: Always a pleasure, have a good day.