Philipp

Philipp arrived in the United States at age fourteen in 1888. He lived with his father and brothers and sister in Des Peres, Missouri. In 1896, he planned to get married and told his brother George, that if he and his wife could moved in with George and his daughters, his wife, Bertha, could take care of the girls. The three girls lived with Philipp and Bertha until 1903.

When Phillip's brother George moved to Oklahoma in 1901, Phillip, Bertha, and the girls moved to St. Louis where Phillip found work in the car shops and learned the iron and blacksmith trade. 

In 1905 he joined his brother George in Oklahoma, arriving on July 1. Disaster struck immediately when their second child, Clara, was struck by lightning on the following day. Their hearts were broken and they wanted to return to St. Louis, but the people of the community encouraged them to stay. In a short time, Phillip found work in Mr. Winter's blacksmith shop in Lahoma. After a few years as a blacksmith, he rented a farm which lay on the corner of Highway 60 and Highway 142 some three miles east of Lahoma. It was known as the Owens farm. It was later sold and they moved temporarily to the Luckert farm. Soon he purchased a farm 3/4 of a mile east of Hillsdale, moving there in 1917. 

Around 1920, he built a large barn with a hay loft above the ground floor. On the left side were stanchions for dairy cows and the east side were stalls with mangers and feed boxes for horses.

A team was assigned to each stall and there were 12 stalls. The top door for putting up hay was hinged at the bottom and folded out. It was painted a very bright yellow with the words "Alfalfa Valley Dairy Farm, Guernsey Cattle". He started his dairy herd by obtaining two pure bred heifers from Wisconsin. He built up this herd by trading and buying stock from Jerry Oven, a local breeder of Guernsey cattle. 

Phillip was the forerunner of the modern day custom harvester. With a 7 foot binder, 12 head of horses and four strong boys, he could bind and have shocked in one day 35-40 acres of wheat. The horses were alternated in two hour shifts, four to a shift. Little time was lost in changing horses and the change was somewhat akin to a pit stop in modern day racing, with two of the boys changing horses, two oiling and adjusting the binder, and Phillip taking a drink of water. 

As his boys grew older and established families of their own, Phillip moved to Hillsdale and his son George (Rich) farmed the homestead. It wasn't long before a train arrived with a forge, anvils, trip hammers, and all the other necessary tools needed to run a blacksmith shop and so at the age of 63, he took up the trade he had learned in St Louis as a young man. Plow shares were heated white hot and held under the trip hammer and the edge pounded until it was sharp. Iron rods and beams were heated and forged together on his anvil by hammer. Iron tire rims were heated and expanded and placed on the wooden wheel, cooled and shrunk to fit the wheel. 

In summer the days were long. From about 6:30 to 10:00 pm. the heat was stifling and the need for liquids was great. Phillip would drink almost a case of beer a day. His overalls would be completely saturated with perspiration and when he would pause at one place, the water would drip from him and collect about his feet in a small puddle. 

He was one of the first to have a radio and only one could listen at a time over the earphones. His House was equipped with carbide lights and the living room contained a player piano where in the winter evenings all gathered around and sang along with the piano. Phillip was short in stature with a great temper. 

Credit to Gilbert Williams, written as told by Pauline Fischaber.

Edited by Kathy Donahue