William Esco PHELPS

1891 - 1983  (91 years)

• Name	William Esco PHELPS
  Born	22 Jun 1891	Blount Co, Tennessee
  Gender	Male
  Died	02 Mar 1983	Blount Co, Tennessee
  Buried	7 Mar 1983	Sherwood Memorial, Maryville, Blount County, TN
  Person ID	I11780	TAP | George Fulp's Full Tree, George/Michael Branch
  Last Modified	14 Feb 2017

  
  

  Father	Daniel Richard FELPS/PHELPS,   b. 20 Apr 1839, Blount Co, Tennessee ,   d. 12 Feb 1910, Blount Co, Tennessee  (Age 70 years)
  Mother	Sarah Jane LEBOW,   b. 02 Aug 1865, Blount Co, Tennessee ,   d. 08 Mar 1927, Blount Co, Tennessee  (Age 61 years)
  Married	23 Nov 1882	Blount Co, Tennessee
  Family ID	F4432	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

  Family	Rosa Honor DAVIS,   b. 11 Feb 1888, Blount Co, Tennessee ,   d. 28 Feb 1986, Blount Co, Tennessee  (Age 98 years)
  Married	30 Apr 1911	Blount Co, Tennessee
  Children	1. John Richard PHELPS,   b. 28 Feb 1912, Blount Co, Tennessee ,   d. 06 Apr 1912, Blount Co, Tennessee  (Age 0 years)  [Natural]   2. Geneva Elaine PHELPS,   b. 01 Apr 1913, Blount Co, Tennessee ,   d. 15 Mar 2007, Blount Co, Tennessee  (Age 93 years)   3. Edna Earle PHELPS,   b. 18 Dec 1914, Blount Co, Tennessee ,   d. 17 Jun 2001, Blount Co, TN  (Age 86 years)  [Natural]   4. Daniel Edward PHELPS,   b. 13 Apr 1917, Hansford, Hansford County, Texas ,   d. 08 Jan 1980, Maryville, Blount Co, Tennessee  (Age 62 years)   5. Anna Reva PHELPS,   b. 14 Sep 1919, Blount Co, Tennessee ,   d. 03 May 2005, Ash County, NC  (Age 85 years)  [Natural]   6. William Darrell PHELPS,   b. 08 Oct 1921, Blount Co, Tennessee ,   d. 11 Oct 2020, Friendsville, Tennessee  (Age 99 years)   7. Juanita Maye PHELPS,   b. 05 Apr 1924, Blount Co, Tennessee ,   d. 8 Oct 2020, Tullahoma. TN  (Age 96 years)   8. Jerrod Gilbert PHELPS,   b. 05 Sep 1926, Blount County, NC ,   d. 1 May 1986, Monroe County, NC  (Age 59 years)
  Last Modified	19 Aug 2013
  Family ID	F4428	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

• Photos » Slide Show		Daniel Richard and Sarah Jane Phelps Family 2
  		Daniel, Sarah, Esco & Rosa Phelps
  		Log House and Horse Log House was built by William Esco Phelps and many different families lived here before it burned in the 90's. William Esco is leading "Bob" the horse, with (left to right) Anna Reva Phelps Davis, Jerrod Gilbert Phelps and Daniel Edward Phelps riding.
  		Rosa, Esco Daniel & Audrey
  		Esco & Rose with their Daughters
  		William Esco & Daniel Edward Phelps
  		William Esco & Rosa Honor Davis Phelps @ their First Home
  		Esco, Rosa, Daniel & Audrey Phelps
  		Rosa & Esco Phelps with first grandson Jim Sturgeon
  		William Esco Phelps with Family
  		William Esco Phelps
  		William Esco and Rosa Davis Phelps with some of Children
  		Phelps/Davis Home Built by Esco and Family
  		The House that Esco Built TA Phelps was born here
  		William Esco"Toto" Phelps with William Darrell "Billy" Phelps Jr in background
  		William Esco Phelps - Daniel Edward Phelps - Jerrod Gilbert Phelps - Allen R Stoutt
  		Rosa & Esco Phelps Audrey & Daniel Phelps Edna & Allen Stoutt
  		Rosa Davis Phelps William Esco Phelps Daniel Edward Phelps Audrey McGuffin Phelps
  		Mike Felps Knife M Felps is engraved on the handle of this knife. It has been passed down through the Felps/Phelps family to Daniel Richard, William Esco, Jerrod Gilbert and Jerrod Glenn who now hold the knife. The knife was carried throughout the Civil War by Daniel Richard Felps/Phelps. It is a "patch knife" which was used to cut excessive cloth from around the lead ball being placed into the muzzle of a black powder gun.
  		1950 Phelps Reunion
  		1952 Phelps Reunion 1. William Esco Phelps 6. Verlan Phelps 11. Glen Phelps 16. Rose Davis Phelps 2. James Sturgeon 7. Geneva Phelps Sturgeon 12. Roger Davis 17. Hazel Phelps 3. Bill Jackson 8. Juanita Phelps Jackson 13. Brick Sturgeon 18. Jewel Phelps 4. Anna Reva Davis Phelps 9. Royce Phelps 14. Phil Stout 5. Jerrod Glen Phelps 10. Edna Phelps Stout 15. Becky Jackson
  		1954 Phelps Reuniuon 1. William Esco Phelps 2. Daniel Edward Phelps 3. Geneva Phelps Sturgeon 4. Juanita Phelps Jackson 5. Rosa Davis Phelps 6. Jerrod Phelps 7. Verlin Phelps 8. Jewel Clemmons 9. Earl Phelps 10. Quinn Phelps 12. Jewel Clemmons 13. Louise Phelps Hord 14. Sheila Phelps 15. Phil Phelps 16. Johnny Davis 17. LaRana Davis
  		William Esco Phelps
  		William Esco Phelps and daughter Geneva Elaine Phelps Sturgeon
  		L to R Rose Honor Davis Phelps William Esco Phelps Audrey Helen McGuffin Phelps Daniel Edward Phelps Edna Earle Phelps Stoutt Allan Stoutt
  		William Esco & Rose Honor Davis Phelps
  		Grey Ridge Home Built by William Esco Phelps & Family with Vertical Logs
  		Rosa Honor Davis Phelps William Esco Phelps Vola Beatrice Phelps Talbott
  		William Esco Phelps and grand daughter Larana Davis
  		William Esco and Rosa Davis Phelps
  		Esco & Rosa Phelps @ Home
  		William Esco & Rose Honor Davis Phelps
  		Family Home on Gray Ridge Blount County, TN Vertical log home built by Esco Phelps and family. Home at different times to Phelps, Sturgeon and Davis families. Thomas A Phelps was born here in 1943.
  		William Esco & Rosa Davis Phelps
  		William Esco Phelps

  
  

  Documents » Slide Show		Esco & Rosa Wedding Certificate
  		Esco & Rose Celebrating 67 Years of Marriage Article was in the Maryville, TN Newspaper
  		William Esco Birth Certificate
  		Record of Sale of the Daniel Richard Phelps Homestead
  		William Esco & Rosa Honor Davis Phelps 67th Wedding Newspaper Article
  		Shotgun belonging to William Esco Phelps 1900 12 ga. double barrel shotgun with exposed hammers and demascus barrel
  		Ax used by William Esco Phelps To build the home in the picture

  
  

  Headstones

  William Esco & Rosa H Davis Phelps Headstone

  
  

  Recordings

  1972 Audio Recording of William Esco Phelps Esco discusses the Civil War experiences of his father and uncles

  
  

  Family Group Sheets

  William Esco Phelps Family Group Sheet

  
  

  Family Profiles

  William Esco Phelps Profile

  
  

  Trees

  William Esco & Rosa Honor Davis Phelps Family Tree

  
  

• Notes

  William Esco Phelps was born June 22, 1891 in the Middlesettlements Community of Blount County, Tennessee. He was the oldest son of Daniel Richard Phelps and Sarah Jane Lebow Phelps. His siblings who survived to adulthood were Rhoda Ethel, Richard Earl, Vola Beatrice, Vivian Blane, and Henry Verlan. Three sisters died in infancy prior to his birth. He was known by his middle name, Esco. During Esco Phelps' youth, the family owned and farmed 166 acres in the Middlesettments Community near what is now called Lovingood Spring. It included part of Grey Ridge and Long Hollow. The farm was purchased jointly in 1867 for $1450 by Esco's father, Daniel Richard, his grandmother Rhoda, and younger brothers, George and Hiram. Not quiet 20 years old, William Esco Phelps married Rosa Honor Davis on April 30, 1911. "Rose" lived on an adjacent farm and was the daughter of John Brownlow Davis and Mihaska Bright Davis. She described their wedding in a note written on their 66th wedding anniversary, "we was setting in a buggy in the middle of the road..on the north side of and at the foot of gray ridge, god had that side of the ridge covered with birds and wild flowers". Her full note is in the media section. Soon after their marriage the young couple built and furnished a two-story house on top of Grey Ridge. Within months of its completion, the house caught fire and burned to the ground. Rose and Esco were not at home when the fire started. All their possessions were lost except a rocking chair that was on the front porch. Rose and Esco Phelps became parents of a son on February 28, 1912. They named him John Richard after his grandfathers. Sadly, he died of whooping cough within two months. The young couple's second child was born in the spring of 1913 and was named Geneva. William Esco's father had not written a will before he died in 1910. By law, the farm on which Esco, his widowed mother, and several of the children lived, had to be sold at auction to satisfy the legitimate claims of all the heirs. The sale took place at the Blount County Court House on December 13, 1913. The highest bid was $3502. At the end of the day, W. B. Lovingood was the new owner of what had been the Phelps family farm. Daughter Edna Earle was born in late 1914. With young daughters Geneva and Edna, Esco and Rose moved to Texas about 1916 to work on the ranch of W. E. Love. The ranch was seven miles north of the small town of Hansford in the flat, windswept Texas panhandle. With World War I in progress, William Esco Phelps signed his draft registration card on June 5, 1916. In the spring of 1917, another son was born and named Daniel Edward. By 1918 Esco and Rose Phelps had moved from Texas back to Tennessee. To support his young family, Esco went alone to Wilmington, North Carolina where work was available in the wartime shipyards. The year 1918 is remembered for the armistice in Europe, but also as the year of The Great Influenza Epidemic. Living in a boarding house near the shipyard, William Esco caught the deadly flu. His story of his several feverish days between life and death was grimly riveting. Many of his fellow boarders did not survive. Daughter Anna Reva Phelps was born in the autumn of 1919. During the 1920s the Phelps family continued to grow. William Esco provided for his wife and children by working part-time as a carpenter and farming at several locations in Blount County. New son William Darrell arrived in 1921, daughter Juanita May in 1924, and their last child, Jerrod Gilbert in 1926. In the mid-1930s, Esco and Rose Phelps settled on a 40-acre farm on Grey Ridge that had come into the family by inheritance. They lived in a temporary house as Esco went to work on a proper home to replace the one that had burned higher on the same ridge 20 years earlier. A building site was selected at the center of a broad step in the ridge. When time could be spared from his farm duties and with help of some of his sons, lumber was cut, a cistern was dug, red oak shingles rived and a foundation laid. The house took years to complete but was a work of art when finished. It was two-story with outer walls of cured pine logs placed vertically. The shingled upper story included two dormers on the front for added light and space. A gabled roof covered the front porch. William Esco Phelps was a farmer at heart and better farmland was never far from his mind. He loved "to see things grow", he said. Experience had taught him that it was hard to get ahead on a ridge-side farm. River bottoms and level land grew the best crops and when Esco learned in 1948 of a 200 acre farm that had both, he made arrangements to buy it, though it was 70 miles away in Bradley County. Esco and Rose were near 60 years of age when they tackled their new farm in Bradley County. Daughter Juanita and her husband Bill Jackson partnered in the venture. The farm had an acceptable barn, but needed a second one. The house that was on the place when they bought it was barely livable. The Jackson's also needed a house, so the foursome went to work and built two new houses and a barn. In the mid-1950s with age beginning to take its toll, Esco Phelps retired from farming. He and Rose moved back to Blount County and lived their later years near family. Son William Darrell and his wife Marie lived next door and, along with other family, helped them to live independently until their late 80s. William Esco died on March 2, 1983. He is buried in Sherwood Memorial Gardens, Maryville, Blount County, Tennessee. Rose survived him by three years. William Esco Phelps is remembered as a kind and gentle man. His energy and strength seemed boundless, but his manner was quiet, humble, and considerate. He spoke softly but directly. He was an ardent listener and his responses were always careful and well considered. His honesty was beyond question. His word was his bond. As one admiring grandson put it, "Whatever he told you, you could take it to the bank". No one was a better story teller than Esco Phelps the grandfather. His grandchildren listened to stories of the family with rapt attention. Much of what we know about the Phelps family was passed to younger generations by his stories. Most accounts were of major life events and of a serious nature, but some were humorous and no one laughed harder at the end than the teller. He loved to hunt and fish and was good at both. He was also a good cook and often got in the kitchen to fix for the table whatever he had brought home from field or stream. One grandchild remembers baked quail on a bed of dressing, another freshly caught catfish fried in special cornmeal batter. A daughter remembers that he always whistled while he worked in the kitchen and that he made wonderful cornbread from freshly picked, almost-hardened corn, grated by hand on a grater that he had made himself. His love for sweets was well known, the more sugar the better. William Esco Phelps lived close to the land all of his life and considered the long hours of a farmer a labor of love. When asked in later years to reflect on a life that had its share of difficulty, he responded quickly with a convincing gleam in his eye and no hint of regret, "Farming is the best life there is."