Phelps, William

Born: 1809-11-01 New York

Died: 1889-10-16 Nebraska

Flourished: Lewistown, Illinois

Around 1820, Phelps moved with his parents to Illinois. They initially settled in Sangamon County but soon after relocated to Fulton County, where Phelps's father was a merchant. As a young man, Phelps engaged in trading with Native Americans in western Illinois and Iowa and spent some time as captain of a Mississippi River steamboat. In 1830, he married Caroline Kelsey, with whom he had three children. In 1846, Phelps returned to Fulton County, where he engaged in farming and mercantile pursuits. Phelps was a Freemason and politically he identified as a Whig and by 1860 as a Republican.

Portrait and Biographical Album of Fulton County, Illinois (Chicago: Biographical, 1890), 293-94; History of Fulton County Illinois (Peoria, IL: Chas. C. Chapman, 1879), 808, 978, 980; Gravestone, Oak Hill Cemetery, Lewistown, IL.