John A. Phillips, a farmer, was born in Richwood, Union County, Ohio, March 22, 1836. He is a son of William and Isabella Ann (Woods) Phillips, both of Scotch Irish extraction. They emigrated from Pennsylvania to Ohio in 1832, and settled in Richwood, where they remained until their deaths, he in 1880, and she in 1875. The former was a potter by trade, and in 1834 built the first pottery in Union County, which business he followed most of his life. Our subject and two sisters are the only survivors of a family of eight children. He received a common school education and learned the harness-maker's trade in Richwood, following it seven years. In 1861, he enlisted as a private in Company F, Sixteenth Regiment Ohio Volunteer Infantry, for three years, and was discharged in 1864, at the expiration of his term of service, as Fourth Sergeant. Reserved under Gen. Sherman, and at the siege of Vicksburg he and over three hundred of his comrades were taken prisoners and confined for three months in two different rebel prisons. Returning to civil life, he embarked in the drug trade in the firm of Phillips & Woods; then in the lumber business two years, dry goods trade one year, drug business with A. Z. Converse eighteen months, and finally purchased a farm south of Richwood and partly in the corporation, on which he still resides. He was married, October 13, 1869, to Mary C. Fisher, daughter of Benjamin Fisher, and by her has had two children-Lizzie L. and Alfiretta Q. Both parents are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and Mr. Phillips is a Republican in politics. His brother, A. G. Phillips, was killed at the battle of Atlanta. Ga., in 1863.