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My great great-grandfather  Ronald
Aaron Noble Phelps or Aaron, as he was known, his mother Clarissa Root
Phelps, and his wife Sarah Jerusha Adams were founders of the relgious
community established at Galesburg, Illinois. He was born in 1819 and they
were married in 1847.
Noble Phelps and Sarah Jerusha Adams had the following children:
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Alfred
Aaron "Squire" Phelps was born on 14 Feb 1849 in
Wataga, Knox, Illinois. Alfred married Addie Mary Cable and they
had four children. Squire rode in the Buffalo
Bill's Wild West show for several years. |
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Emma
Ella Phelps was born on 23 Dec 1850 in Wataga, Knox, Illinois.
She died at age 19 months on 7 Aug 1852 in Wataga, Knox, Illinois.
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William
L Phelps was born on 7 Jul 1853 in Wataga, Knox, Illinois.
He died at 3 1/2 years on 3 Apr 1857 in Wataga, Knox, Illinois.
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Ernest
Harmon Phelps was born on 3 Mar 1859 in Wataga, Knox,
Illinois. He married and lived most of his life in Los Angeles,
where his descendants still live today. His son Newell Butler
Phelps had a son, Dr. James Phelps, who practiced for many
years in Pasadena.
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Thadeus Merrill Phelps was
born on 4 Oct 1856 in Wataga, Knox, Illinois. (Family tradition gives
his birth location as Peoria, Illinois, while the 1870 census gives
it as Pennsylvania. Further research pending...) |
The Family Goes West
On March 7, 1883, Thadeus Merrill Phelps married Helen
Lindsay Bartle, who was born on 6 Jul 1862 in Decatur,
Van Buren Co., Michigan. Thadeus is said to have left Peoria, Illinois
in 1897.
According to family records, he arrived with his family in San Diego
in about 1897. My grandmother, Anne Christy Phelps, told me there
was a "local
depression" in the Los Angeles area at the time. The family moved
several times, to Pasadena, Altadena, Los Angeles, and Glendale. Thadeus
and Helen had the following children:
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Helen Elizabeth Phelps
was born on 16 Dec 1883 in Creston, Iowa. She died on 19 Sep 1955
in Los Angeles Co., California. She never married. The cause of death
was cirrhosis of liver. |
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Blanche Adams Phelps was born
on 4 Mar 1889. She married J. E. Geoff and later, Lester Ryan, but
had no children. She died 16 Dec 1956 in Pasadena, California. |
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Mildred Phelps was born
in 1891 in Peoria, Illinois. She died at age 22 on 2 May 1913. She
never married. |
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Harold
Bartle "Bart" Phelps Sr. was born on 3 Dec 1893 in Peoria,
Illinois. He had one son, my father. |
Thadeus' wife Helen died on 23 Mar 1902 in Los Angeles, California.
Thadeus' death certificate reveals that he was in California "33
years" at
his death in 1932. Thadeus died on 13 May 1932 in Glendale, Los Angeles,
California, where he was cremated and interred in the Inglewood Cemetery,
Los Angeles, California.
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| Helen Lindsay Bartle, in 1895 at age
37. She died only seven years laer in 1902. |
Thadeus Merrill Phelps,
about 1910, at age 54. |
Bart Joins the Navy and Gets Hitched
Their son Harold (nicknamed "Skinny" in the Navy, and "Bart"
afterwards) met and married a comely young lady named Anna
Elizabeth Christy in 1920. They lived from 1937 until his death
at age 91 in 1984 in San Mateo, California. Aside from a long hitch as
a radioman in the Navy, he worked
as a property assessor for San Mateo County. They had one son, Harold
Bartle "Hal" Phelps Jr., my father.
Harold "Hal" Phelps married Annabeth
Beasley in Kansas City on 21 Dec 1947. At the end of WWII,
Hal was enrolled in the Navy ROTC V-12 program at Kansas State
University;
he finished his college education as a junior officer and went active
duty in early 1945. They moved shortly afterwards to Naval Training
Center
at Chincoteague, Virginia. From there they moved to Camp Pendleton, near
Long Beach, California. My brother Bud was born there in 1951.
The family next moved
to Great Lakes Naval Training Center, 35 miles north of Chicago. It was
while stationed here that Annabeth's mother, Elizabeth Bremser
Beasley,
passed away.
In 1954 Hal was next stationed to Germany. Annabeth and Bud followed
in early 1955. Though a Navy man and far from the seas, he was attached
to a Seabees (civil engineering) unit at the 6th Army Headquarters. While
in Germany, their second son, Brian was born. The family left Germany
in February, 1956 and returned to California. Hal was assigned to the
Naval Air Station in Monterey, California. Annabeth and Hal were divorced
the next year.
Bud died in August, 2000, having never married nor had any children.
Annabeth died in her sleep less than nine months later, at age 73.
Brian, the author of this site, married Susan Claypool, with whom he
had Tucker. He then married Sharla Morgan, and they have four sons,
Connor, Cory, Aaron, and Gordon. They live today outside Stockton, California.
Contributors
Major contributors to the Phelps Family
History include  David
Phelps of Texas who has done a considerable amount of original research
into the descendants of the Phelps family in England. They are the progenitors
of our entire Phelps family in America. David contributed several hundred ancestors
and descendants of Revolutionary War Sgt. Noah Phelps of East Windsor, Hartford,
Connecticut. (m. Hannah Abbe). (See ![[Opens external site in new window]](../../resources/Icons/ico_external_site.gif)
Phelps
Family Research for details of David's research.)
Thanks also go to Ann
Suter, who contributed over 700 descendants of Jacob Phelps, one of the
sons of an original immigrant, George Phelps. Our appreciation to Ellen
Wilds, who helped connect William
Walter Phelps to his ancestors and descendants.
The information on Timothy and Sarah Case Phelps and their descendants is courtesy
of Sam
Bunn. From down under,
Wendy
Herne of St. Clair, New South Wales, Australia, contributed significant information
about the Phelps branch descended from Edward Phelps and Hester Smithsend of Tewkesbury. The family of
Alfred Aaron "Squire" Phelps of Illinois, who rode with Buffalo Bill's
"Wild West Show", is courtesy of his great-granddaughter, Pat
Phelps Broeker. She still lives near the family home. Thanks to Dottie
Pierson for the descendants of Jeremiah Phelps of Canada.
For details on the descendants of John Phelps (b. 27 Sep 1730, m. Deborah
Dewey), we owe thanks to
Herbert Phelps of Myrtle
Beach, South Carolina.
The descendants of a Canadian branch, Samuel Phelps and Mariette Goodrich are
thanks to John
Phelps of Yukon Territory, Canada. Another Canadian line is that of Oliver
Cromwell Phelps and Marie-Josephite Roi, with thanks to
Linnie Poirier and Ron
Monroe.
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