Encyclopedia of Connecticut biography, genealogical-memorial ...

edict) Olmstead.
(IV) Richard Whitney, son of Henry
(2) and Elizabeth (Olmstead) Whitney,
was born in Ridgefield, Connecticut,
March 29, 1722, and died November 18,
1772. He was a farmer. On December
18, 1745, he married Esther Clark, and
she died in April, 1810. They were the
parents of Elizabeth Whitney, who became
the wife of Timothy Hunt, as above
mentioned.
PHILLIPS, Albert,
Lawyer, Public Official.
The real history of a community or
State is made by the wide-awake, pro-
gressive man of affairs. The public-
spirited citizen who is ready at all times
to use his means and influence in the promotion
of public improvements aids ma-
terially. A man of this caliber is Albert
Phillips, of Stamford, Connecticut. Mr.
Phillips was born March I, 1887, in New
Britain, Connecticut, son of John and
Sarah (Gornick) Phillips.
(I) Fischel Phillips, grandfather of
Albert Phillips, was a wholesale provi-
sion merchant in Odessa, Russia, for
many years, and during the Russian-
Turkish War he ran the blockade and
obtained provisions to supply the Russian
Army. He made four visits to Amer-
ica, but never became a resident of this
country.
(II) John Phillips, son of Fischel Phil-
lips, was born April 30, 1864, in Odessa,
Russia. As a lad of thirteen years he
came to New York City alone and secured
employment in a bronze foundry. He had
followed this work in his native country.
He had had small opportunity for edu-
cation, but his natural desires caused
him to take up an extensive reading
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY
in Norwalk, Elizabeth Olmstead, daugh- course in the evenings, and in this manter
of Lieutenant John and Mary (Ben- ner he made himself master of several
subjects. He possessed splendid mental
400
capacity, and boundless determination
and indefatigable industry. He mastered
each detail in the production of brass,
bronze and white metal, and the manu-
facture of these into various articles of
commerce. Mr. Phillips rose rapidly to
positions of responsibility. For some
years he did laboratory work in the New
York plant of the Edison Company, leav-
ing in 1886 to go with the P. F. Corbin
Company, of New Britain, Connecticut,
as a metal expert. He remained there
about two years, and then removed to
Stamford, Connecticut, where he entered
the employ of the Yale & Towne Manu-
facturing Company as an expert in the
Brass Foundry Department. He had
supervision of the casting of the largest
bronze castings, such as, immense stair-
railings, chandeliers, and so forth, their
subsequent finishing and placing in final
position. He remained in this position
until 1893, in which year he engaged in
business for himself in a widely different
vocation, that of retail shoe merchant.
For more than a quarter of a century Mr.
Phillips has been numbered among the
successful retail merchants of Stamford.
Mr. Phillips married, in New Haven,
Connecticut, Sarah Gornick, a native of
Odessa. They were the parents of two
children: Albert, of whom further; Eva,
graduated from Stamford High School,
and took the degree of LL. B. from New
York University, but has never practised.
(Ill) Albert Phillips, son of John and
Sarah (Gornick) Phillips, was a student
in the Stamford public schools, graduating
from the High School in 1905, and
from the New York University Law
School in 1908, with the degree of LL. B.
Subsequently he became associated in
the practice of his profession with Homer