DUANE
Duane's take
The official marker's the starting point for this one, and I'm just here to do it justice. Now picture East Texas, 1872. Somebody is driving square nails and swinging a broad ax, hewing the boards that'll become the Ben Phillips Place in Upshur County.
Not a sawmill board in the bunch — every plank shaped by hand. The kind of construction that says a man meant for this house to last. And last it did.
The man who built it — or at least the man whose name it carries down through history — was Ben F. Phillips. Born in 1845.
A Confederate veteran who came home from the war and apparently decided that if the world was going to keep movin, he'd rather be at the center of it than the edge. He became a minister in the Church of Christ, a student of politics, a philosopher by disposition. The kind of man people rode a good distance to sit and talk with.
And talk they did. That house became a center for the discussion of politics and news. You want to know what was happening in Upshur County, in Texas, in the wider world — you found your way to the Ben Phillips Place.
The marker puts it plain and proud: a stranger never passed this home. Think about what that means. Nobody was left to walk on by.
The door was open. The conversation was already started. Ben married Mattie Fambrough, born in 1856, and together they had nine daughters.
Nine. The philosopher-minister-politician was raising a household full of women, and somehow he also found time to perform many marriages right there on those broad-ax-hewn floors. That house witnessed more than one family begin.
And then there's the Legislature. From 1890 to 1894, Ben F. Phillips represented Upshur and Camp counties in the Texas Legislature.
The preacher and the philosopher had gone to Austin. He lived until 1927. Mattie lived until 1937.
The house they shared — built in 1872 with square nails and hand-hewn boards, where strangers were welcomed and marriages were made and politics were argued long into the evening — that house was still standing when this marker was placed in 1964. Some things get built to endure. Ben Phillips apparently understood that from the very first nail.
What the marker says
Built in 1872 with square nails, broad ax hewn boards. Center for talk of politics and news. "A stranger never passed this home." Many marriages performed here by Ben F. Phillips (1845-1927), Church of Christ minister, student of politics, philosopher, Confederate veteran. He represented Upshur-Camp counties, 1890-94, in Texas Legislature. Married Mattie Fambrough (1856-1937) and had nine daughters. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark, 1964