Daughter of Quakers. Descendant of a man who crossed the Atlantic in 1683. Born into one of Hendricks County's oldest farming families. Her story begins not in Indiana — but on a ship, in a winter ocean, in the age of William Penn.
| Gen. | Name | Years | Where | Key Fact |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| I | George Phillips | ?–1740 | Pennsylvania | Arrived Delaware River Jan. 23, 1683. English Quaker. |
| II | George Phillips Jr. | 1706–~1754 | Bucks Co., PA | Farmer. Milford Township plantation. |
| III | John Phillips | abt.1738–bef.1792 | PA → Stokes Co., NC | Moved from Quakertown PA to North Carolina abt. 1789. |
| IV | John Samuel Phillips | 1775–? | NC → Wayne Co., IN | Married Salome Sides. Moved family to Indiana. |
| V | Eli Phillips Sr. | 1805–1881 | Guilford Co., NC → Clay Twp., IN | Moved to Hendricks County 1834. Cleared 160 acres. "Pioneer Citizen." |
| VI | William Wesley Phillips | Jan. 2, 1837–1902 | Hendricks Co., IN | Born Jan. 2, 1837 on Eli's farm. 148th Indiana Infantry, Co. B. Completely disabled by rheumatism. $30/month pension. Member GAR, Reuben Masten Post No. 431, Amo. (Source: 1895 Biographical Record, pp. 991–992) |
| VII | Eber Eli Phillips | 1882–1957 | Amo/Hadley, IN | Lifelong Amo/Hadley community. Married Flora Purcell. Amo Cemetery. |
| VIII | Sarah Frances Phillips | 1915–1999 | Hendricks Co., IN | Married Wayne Allen Plunkett 1936. New Winchester Cemetery. |
January 23, 1683. A ship called the Endeavor of London crosses the Atlantic, carrying among its passengers a young Englishman named George Phillips — an indentured servant of Henry Maddock of Manturch, Cheshire, England. The ship enters the Delaware River in Pennsylvania. George Phillips has arrived in the New World.
He is of the English Friends faith — a Quaker. After completing his apprenticeship around 1699, he married Patience Griffith and settled within the boundaries of the Abington and Gwynedd Monthly Meetings. On June 25, 1712, he purchased 300 acres in the Manor of Richland, Bucks County, Pennsylvania, recorded as one of the area's earliest settlers.
George Phillips and Patience Griffith had nine children. He died in September 1740; his will was probated December 29, 1740. The family he planted in American soil would grow for 340 years.
"George Phillips immigrated to the United States... aboard the ship Endeavor of London, he arrived at the Delaware River in Pennsylvania on January 23, 1683."
— Phillips Family History, finchroots.com
Remarkable coincidence: George Phillips arrived at the Delaware River on January 23, 1683. Wayne Allen Plunkett — the man Sarah Frances would marry 253 years later — was born on January 23, 1914. The man who began this entire American family line and the man Sarah Frances married share a birthday across three centuries.
George Phillips Jr. (1706–~1754), born in Richland and raised on his father's land, became a farmer in Milford Township, Bucks County, purchasing his own plantation in 1740 — the same year his father died. His widow Alice Fairman outlived him by 50 years.
Quaker Meeting House, Quakertown, Pennsylvania
Near where John Phillips lived before moving to North Carolina
Their son John Phillips (born abt. 1738 in Milford Township) married Ann Haisley and remained in Bucks County until around 1789, when he made the significant decision to move his family south — from Quakertown, Pennsylvania, to Stokes County, North Carolina. This migration, common among Quaker families of the era, began the Carolina chapter of the family that your family oral history preserved. John died before 1792; Ann died in Yadkin County, North Carolina, in 1832.
Pennsylvania → North Carolina → Indiana: the Quaker migration west, following the land and the faith.
The Quaker migration from the Carolina Piedmont to Indiana, early 1800s
Samuel Phillips (grandfather of William Wesley Phillips) married Sarah Sides and settled in Wayne County, Indiana after his children were born — he died there soon after. His son and married Salome Sarah (Sally) Sides, also born in 1775. Their son Eli Phillips Sr. was born February 2, 1805, in Guilford County, North Carolina — the very county from which hundreds of Quaker families would make the great migration to Indiana.
The Quaker migration from the Carolina Piedmont to Indiana was one of the most significant religious migrations in early American history. Beginning around 1800, entire meetings relocated — driven by a desire for fresh land and, crucially, by their refusal to live in a slave society. The Friends would not own enslaved people, and many who could leave did.
They followed the National Road west and north, settling first in Wayne County, Indiana — named for the North Carolina county many had left — then spreading into Hendricks and surrounding counties. John Samuel Phillips moved his family to Wayne County, Indiana. His son Eli would push further into Hendricks County.
The Quaker Migration
The Hendricks County GenWeb records confirm: "Several families, many of them of Quaker faith, traveled from Guilford County, North Carolina and settled there, in the area around present-day Plainfield."
The Phillips family was part of this great movement — leaving a slave state, carrying their faith westward, putting down new roots in free Indiana soil.
Eli Phillips Sr. (February 2, 1805 – January 1, 1881) was born in Guilford County, North Carolina, and made his defining move in 1834: he came to Clay Township, Hendricks County, Indiana, where he bought 160 acres of woods — and cleared it for farmland by hand.
He was formally noted in county historical records as a respected "Pioneer Citizen" of Hendricks County, Indiana. He married Margaret "Peggie" Cosner, daughter of John and Abigail (Pike) Cosner. Eli and Peggie were Republicans and members of the Friends Church. He died January 1, 1881, at age 75. Both are buried in Spring Friends Cemetery, Clay Township, Hendricks County.
Eli Phillips Sr. (1805–1881) · Spring Friends Cemetery · Clay Township, Hendricks County
"Moved to Clay Township, Hendricks County, Indiana in 1834, where he bought 160 acres of woods, which he cleared for farmland. Noted as being a respected Pioneer Citizen of Hendricks County."
— Phillips Family History, finchroots.comWhat 160 Acres of Indiana Woods Looked Like in 1834
Eli Phillips didn't buy cleared farmland. He bought forest. Every acre had to be cleared — trees felled with axes, roots pulled by oxen, stumps burned. Years of labor before a single bushel of corn could be harvested.
The land that eventually became the family's Hendricks County foundation was built from raw Indiana wilderness, by hand, starting from nothing.
When the Civil War began in April 1861, Eli Phillips Sr.'s sons faced a profound conflict: Quakers were pacifists, and the Friends Meeting formally prohibited military service. Three sons served anyway. Two did not come home.
William Wesley Phillips (1837–1902) · Spring Friends Cemetery
Civil War Pension Card · William Wesley Phillips · 148th Indiana Infantry, Co. B
All three were disowned or faced censure from the Friends Meeting for their participation in the war. The family paid the full cost of that conflict — in lives, in health, and in their standing within their faith community. Two of Eli's sons are buried at Spring Friends Cemetery.
Sarah Frances Phillips · circa 1930s
The 8th generation of an American Quaker family
The 1895 biography lists William and Sarah's eight children: Israel A., Ella M. (died aged 25), Maggie F., Emma E., Bertha P., James W., Eber E., and Wayne. Their son Eber E. Phillips — listed seventh of eight — is Sarah Frances's father.
Eber Eli Phillips (September 16, 1882 – November 23, 1957) was born in Hendricks County, the son of William Wesley Phillips. He spent his entire life in the Amo and Hadley communities — the same Quaker farming heartland his great-grandfather Eli Sr. had cleared from wilderness 50 years before.
A remarkable detail from the "Other Early Settlers" history of Clay Township: "Anthony Cosner was born in North Carolina in 1799 and married Katie Phillips." The Cosner and Phillips families were intermarrying in North Carolina before either family came to Indiana — they traveled west together as a community. When Eli Phillips married Peggie Cosner in Guilford County, NC, he was marrying into a family already connected to his own by blood and faith.
He married Flora Purcell (August 14, 1886 – November 11, 1953), daughter of Phineas Purcell and Elma Cosner. The Cosner connection linked the Phillips and Cosner families twice — Eli Phillips Sr. had married Margaret Cosner, and now Eber married Flora Purcell whose mother was also a Cosner.
Flora died at home November 11, 1953. Eber died at Methodist Hospital on November 23, 1957 — of pneumonia, at age 75. Both are buried at Amo Cemetery, Amo, Indiana.
Their daughter, Sarah Frances Phillips, was born May 22, 1915. She grew up in the Amo and Hadley communities, surrounded by the Quaker farming heritage her family had carried from England to Pennsylvania to North Carolina to Indiana across 232 years. In 1936, she married Wayne Allen Plunkett — and the rest is the story that brought everyone here.
The biography of Sarah Frances Phillips is supported by primary source documents spanning 1683 to 1999. The most important single document is the 1895 published biography of her grandfather William Wesley Phillips, from pages 991–992 of the Portrait and Biographical Record of Hendricks County (A.W. Bowen & Co., Chicago, 1895) — written while William was still alive and naming his entire family.
From George Phillips stepping off a ship at the Delaware River in January 1683, to Sarah Frances Phillips being born in Hendricks County in May 1915 — eight generations of Quaker farmers, crossing oceans and continents, clearing forests and fighting wars, to get to this moment.
"The Phillips family roots run deep through the heart of Hendricks County, Indiana. Able farmers of Quaker descent, these generations of Phillips have worked the land from Pennsylvania, to North Carolina, to the rolling pastures of central Indiana."
— Phillips Family History, finchroots.com