W. W. Phelps’ Early Years: In the Garden State
(UNDER CONSTRUCTION)
Old Court House in Morristown
(UNDER CONSTRUCTION)
W. W. Phelps was born in Dover village, but the rural
countryside began at its town limits.
(UNDER CONSTRUCTION)
Homer Academy (second from the right) was established in 1819.
W. W. Phelps may have attended its common school predecessor
W. W. Phelps’ Early Years: A New Home in Homer
In 1795 Enon Phelps emigrated from Morristown, NJ, and settled on the north-east corner of lot 50 in the extreme south-east corner of
the present town of Homer; there, on the hill adjoining the town of Solon, he located on a hundred acres of land which he had bought of
George Clinton. It is believed that Mr. Clinton drew this lot as bounty land for services rendered in the army. The location of Mr. Phelps
was about three miles from the [East Branch Tioughnioga] valley, between which points there was at that time, of course, no road....
William W. Phelps was a son of Enon Phelps and a printer by trade. He was at one time connected with one of the county
Democratic papers, but subsequently removed to the western part of the State, where he became a leader among the Mormons, then
located in that section, and printed their bible. Later still he returned to Homer and baptized his father, mother and brother....
Henry P. Smith, History of Cortland County (1885,
pg. 188)
East Homer -- The Phelps family farm was in the hills on the east side of Otselic Valley, in southeast Willet twp.
Enon Phelps was a Revolutionary War veteran who reportedly served with Colonel Nathan Dennison in the 1778 Battle of Wyoming. His
service in the war may have entitled him to special consideration in obtaining his farm in Homer, New York.
(see P. L. Hatcher's Abstract of Graves of Revolutionary Patriots, Vol. 3)
"My source of learning, and my manner of life, from my youth up, will exclude me from the fashionable pleasure of staining
my communications, with the fancy colors of a freshman of Dartmouth, a sophomore of Harvard, or even a graduate of Yale..."
W. W. Phelps, Oct., 1834
"PHELPS, William Wines, Mormon elder, born in Hanover, Morris County, New Jersey... He was self-educated, but
acquired a large amount of miscellaneous information, and became a good oriental scholar..."
Appleton's Cyclopaedia, 1888
On the night of the 29th ult. the store of Mr. W. W. Phelps, in Cortland Village, was burnt, together with its contents. It is supposed
to have been the work of an incendiary, who plundered the store of a part of its most valuable goods, previous to setting it on fire. --
(Ithaca Journal, Nov. 5, 1825)
A new novel, to be entitled, "The New York Yankee, or tales of the First Settlers on the Tioughnioga," is preparing for the press in
Cortland village, in this state. Mr. Wm. W. PHELPS, the author, is represented as being among the accursed of fortune; and as having
resolved in this manner, if possible, to gain reparations for the many evils with which he is afflicted --
(Le Roy Gazette, May 23, 1826)
By order of William Mallery, Esquire, first Judge of the court of Common Pleas, in and for the county of Cortland, Notice is
hereby given, to all the creditors of William W. Phelps, of Homer, in said county, an insolvent debtor, to shew cause, if any
they have, before the said Judge... why an assignment of the said insolvent's estate should not be made, and his person
exempted from imprisonment... --
(Cortland Observer, Oct. 19, 1827)
Note 1: Enon Phelps (1766-1855) lived in Hanover Township, Morris County, New Jersey in the 1790s. His stated residence in the 1800
federal census was Roxbury Township in Morris County. But, by that time he had already purchased his 100 acre farm (at the intersection
of today's Heath and Phelps roads) in northeast Courtlandville twp., Cortland (then Onondaga) Co., New York. --- Henry P. Smith, in his
1885 History of Cortland County says on page 243: "Among the earliest settlers in the eastern part of the town [of Courtlandville]
were... Enon Phelps and others. Enon... remained where he settled but one year (1795-96) and then removed to Homer." Enon's 1797
re-location to the southeast corner of Homer twp. only involved moving his family a mile or so from his first residence (north, up across
the township line, to what is now Parks Road).
Note 2: In 1900 Enon Phelps' youngest and only surviving child, Mrs. Eliza M. Phelps Hicks, provided some family history for the
Oct. 9th issue of the Cortland Evening Standard. Eliza recalled that her father "moved from Hebron, Conn., in the year 1797 and
settled in Onondaga Co., where he lived three years." While the Hebron location is problematic, modern Cortland Co. was in Onondaga
Co. between 1794 until 1808; so part of Mary's statement appears reliable. She also said: "On Oct. 1, 1800, he purchased and moved
on the farm now owned by Frank Phelps... where he lived until his death. He was the father of twelve children; namely: William, Benjamin,
Elijah, Rhuma, Anna, Oren, Mary, Ruth, Enon W., Joshua, Jonathan H. and Eliza M....The farm descended from Enon Phelps to his son
Enon W., and from him to his son Frank, the present owner." ---
Note 3: In its issue of Jan. 24, 1878, The Homer Republican mentioned that Enon Phelps' house "was about three miles from the
[East Branch of the Tioughnioga] valley, and it is believed that his nearest neighbor was the Miller family... Mr. Phelps cleared his land,
brought under cultivation and planted one of the first apple orchards, if not the first in town. His farm, though situated on a hill, was not what
would be called hilly. It was undulating, most of it having a gentle slope to the east and south, and the surface of it was pleasant and attractive.
Mr. Phelps and his wife spent the remainder of their lives from their first location, on this farm, reared a family of twelve children -- seven sons
and five daughters -- and died at quite an advanced age..." According to a "communication" published in the Ithaca Journal of
Feb. 16, 1825, E[non] Phelps, of Homer, "built and put up" a "new organ, which has been recently introduced into the Episcopal Church."
The notice does not specify whether Phelps was himself an Episcopalian (the family evidently affiliated with the Baprists), or whether he built
the organ from scratch, or assembled it from a set of pre-fabricated materials.
Note 4: William W. Phelps (1792-1872) was already past the age of a schoolboy when the Homer Academy was chartered in 1819.
William probably attended that academy's "common school" predecessor. In order to prepare for his career as a printer, William must
have served an apprenticeship in a printing office -- perhaps either with the Courtland Republican or the Courtland Repository.
In September of 1820 Elijah A. Roberts and D. G. Hull established the Western Courier, a Republican newspaper, in Homer, then
Cortland County's second largest village. Oliver S. Phelps, in his 1899 The Phelps Family of America, says (on page I:650) that
W. W. Phelps "started" the paper, but he most likely began as a printer in Roberts and Hull's establishment, and was thus able to work his
way up to purchasing the paper in mid-1822 (with a loan from his parents?). He soon moved the office to nearby Cortland village, and continued
the Republican sheet as its editor-publisher. The Western Courier was then a substantial business enterprise -- in 1822 (at about
the time Phelps was taking over its management in Homer) the "The Western Courier Press" published a booklet, entitled: A Sermon,
Preached in Madison, at the Interment of Mrs. Pamelia Nelson... --- Phelps' Western Courier ceased publication in 1824, but by
then its young editor had obviously obtained a better than average education in that line of work. John Henry Evans, in his 1946 Joseph Smith,
An American Prophet, noted that Phelps "had a good education, which included the Greek and Latin classics, is evident from his numerous
writings." In 1851 W. W. Phelps received the "Chair of Latin and Greek" studies in the newly established University of Deseret.
Note 5: The region's first Masonic lodge (Homer Lodge No. 137) was established in 1806 and it seems likely that William W. Phelps joined
that society during the 1820s. Some time before he published his formal renunciation of the Craft
(in Jan. 1828) W. W. was already a Master Mason.
Elijah A. Roberts was a member of the Homer Lodge during William's early days in Cortland County, and Roberts no doubt well recalled the
eccentric young Phelps in 1830, when he penned these words for The Craftsman: "The patriot Phelps... is a genuine disciple of Gov.
Southwick, and... has long been considered by some very sensible individuals, a prominent stump candidate for a straight jacket." Nevertheless,
this oddball Mr. Phelps was able to secure a reputation for himself sufficient to become a member of the local National Republican committee
formed to "draft resolutions" for the 1823 County Senatorial Nominating Convention later that year.
Note 6: William's removal back to Homer, after the demise of his newspaper business and the uninsured loss of his retail
store in Cortlandville, probably indicates that he had sought refuge in his old home township, with the family of a relative or
an old friend. His return to Homer was short lived, however. By October 10, 1827 he had established himself in the adjacent
county of Tompkins and had found employment as the editor of Trumansburg's new anti-Masonic periodical, the Lake Light.
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