Phelps, Myron

Born: 1803-03-17 New York

Died: 1878-08-15 Lewistown, Illinois

Born in Ontario County, New York, Myron Phelps was a loan agent, merchant, and Presbyterian. He relocated from New York to Springfield, Illinois, with his father, Stephen Phelps, in 1824. Soon after, in partnership with his father, he opened a store in Fulton County, Illinois. The store primarily catered to indigenous people living in the area at first, but expanded as more Euro-Americans settled the land. In March 1831, he married Adeline Rice, with whom he eventually had at least nine children. By September 1835, he was working as a loan agent in Lewistown, Illinois, for the State Bank of Illinois. He later began working full time as a merchant in his father's firm, Stephen Phelps & Son. After his father's death around 1840, he renamed the firm Myron Phelps & Son and began working with his own son, Henry, in 1841. The store sold mainly clothing and household furniture. In 1850, he owned $10,000 in real estate. After Adeline's death, he remarried, wedding Mary Proctor in April 1855. By 1860, he owned real estate valued at $10,000 and a personal estate valued at $50,000.

Illinois Statewide Marriage Index, Fulton County, 24 March 1831, Illinois State Archives, Springfield, IL; Sangamo Journal (Springfield, IL), 26 September 1835, 3:5; The Illinois Public Ledger (Lewistown), 28 May 1853, 3:5; U.S. Census Office, Seventh Census of the United States (1850), Lewistown, Fulton County, IL, 186; U.S. Census Office, Eighth Census of the United States (1860), Lewistown, Fulton County, IL, 19; History of Fulton County Illinois (Peoria, IL: Chas. C. Chapman, 1879), 774, 807-8.