Our Oklahoma Heritage Runs Deep

The first and second Generation of Phillips Pioneers in Oklahoma.

In this day and age, folks are more likely to pack up and move every couple of years than they are to stay put, which makes the notion of "roots" a thing of the past.

Our story is a little different.  The Phillips family has been a group of proud Oklahoma land owners since just before the land run of 1889. That makes us Sooners rather than Boomers because we slipped in before we were supposed to - oops!


Today, our parents and our grandma live on the very same piece of dusty real estate that these amazing folks above traveled across the country to claim.  They started families here and planted their roots here.  They grew wheat and turned out cattle in the pastures.  They cultivated a lifestyle based on hard work and reliant on each other.


When helping my dad mend fence, I came across a fallen and half-burried row of old fence that was clearly comprised of large tree branches rather than iron T posts. It filled me with a warm feeling because I know that one of these pioneers sought out this branch and held it in their hands while building this fence so many years ago.  When they couldn't afford store-bought things, they made do with something else - and probably didn't complain about it, as we do today!


Someday I will make my own "homestead" on this land as well.  Instead of imparting in my children a love of a fast-paced and harried lifestyle, I hope to leave them the legacy of their heritage, which was "free for the taking," yet purchased with the blood sweat and tears of a generation who helped shape our family into who we are today.

Part of our property simply known as "The Old Thomas Place".