Phillips, David L.

Born: 1823-10-28 Williamson County, Illinois

Died: 1880-06-19 Springfield, Illinois

Flourished: Pana, Illinois

David L. Phillips joined the Baptist Church when he was eighteen and entered the ministry two years later. He preached for about eight years throughout southern Illinois. During this same period, he married Charlotte Tate and moved to Elkton. Phillips soon assumed control of the Jonesboro Baptist Church, although he eventually left the ministry due to a disagreement with the church. He then became an editor at the Jonesboro Gazette. Although Phillips and the paper were loyal to the Democratic Party, the Kansas-Nebraska Act drove him toward the Republicans, and his paper went with him. Following Abraham Lincoln's election in 1860, Lincoln appointed Phillips as U.S. marshal for southern Illinois, and he remained in that position through Lincoln's presidency.

History of Sangamon County, Illinois (Chicago: Inter-State, 1881), 219-20.