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The Phillips Family
of Healdsburg, California
Duvall Drake Phillips
(1822 - 1904)
The following articles are taken
from various sources (noted). There is conflicting
information regarding the amount of acreage that the ranch
consisted of but the rest of the information is pretty well
documented. |
 Duvall
Drake Phillips was born
to Gabriel Phillips, Jr. and Fannie Copper Phillips on May 1, 1822 in Mason
County, Kentucky. At the age of five years his parents moved to
Pike County, Missouri where he was reared on the home farm and
educated in subscription schools. He married Amelia Ann Kennedy in 1843
and through this union had two sons, George and Duvall. She died
March 10, 1847.
In late 1847, D. D. enlisted into the
Third Regiment of the Missouri Mounted Volunteers. The regiment
served in the Mexican War from July 1847 to October 1848.
(1)
He had been in the service a short time
when he was detailed to be one of a party of twenty-eight men to
accompany Kit Carson, who was a dispatch carrier, to General Kearney in
California.
After accompanying them to Santa Fe, in New Mexico, Carson obtaining a fresh escort, he and his comrades remained at Santa Fe until their respective commanders arrived, after which they proceeded to Chihuahua and Santa Cruz, in the State of Chihuahua, Mexico. Mr. Phillips remained with this command until the Fall of 1848, when he got his honorable discharge.
After the cessation of hostilities, he returned home to Ralls County,
where he spent the Winter. In the Spring, in company of three
companions, he started across the plains with ox-teams. They arrived at "Hangtown", now Placerville,
on September 1, 1849.
He spent the next seven years mining.
He was remarried in January 1855 to widow Mrs. Mary C. Terry McCloud, he purchased 160 acres
of the Tzabaco Rancho Land Grant from the Spanish authorities with a
partner, Sam Heaton.
He later purchased an adjoining 220
acres making a specialty of fruit raising - devoting 35 acres to
vineyards and 20 acres to prunes. He developed one of the most
productive
 ranches
in Dry Creek and lived there until his death on June 02, 1904.
Of his seven children from his second
marriage, his son Oscar Frederick Phillips (born
October 9, 1858 - picture at the right)
remained in Healdsburg and produced the lineage that owns the property
today!
"As a veteran of the Mexican war, a
California pioneer, and a typical representative of energetic and able
men who fought and won their way through life's battles, Duvall D.
Phillips, who died in Healdsburg, June 2, 1904, will always be held in
loving remembrance throughout the community in which he lived and
maintained a superior rank among the successful businessmen of Sonoma
county." (2)
A Brief History of the Rancho Tzabaco
Mih.ila'khawna, the valley of Dry Creek
and the home of Southern Pomo tribes, became a portion of Tzabaco Rancho
when José German Piña applied for a Mexican land grant in 1843. Building
an adobe that was fashioned more like a fort, José Piña developed the
property and raised cattle, corn, wheat and other crops. Dying
before the age of 25, the property passed on to his brothers Francisco,
Lewis and Jesus and a sister, Clara and her husband William Fitch.
 The
history of Tzabaco Rancho Vineyards begins with Duvall Drake (D. D.)
Phillips in 1856. Having crossed the plains on horseback in 1849,
D. D. had lived in the gold fields as a miner and flume-builder for over
five years before realizing that his future lie elsewhere.
During a scouting trip in 1855 to
Sonoma County D. D. approached the Piña family in regards to purchasing
a portion of their 17,000 acre Tzabaco Rancho. They were not
willing to sell at that time, but misfortunes of drought and crop fire
the following year caused them to reconsider.
In the fall of 1856, D. D. and a
partner named Samuel O. Heaton, bought 137¼ acres for $1112.82½.
Over the next few decades more property was purchased, some was sold,
and Samuel and D. D. went their separate ways after a fifty-fifty split
of their properties.
Source:
Tzbasco
Rancho Vineyards and
The Piña's of Dry Creek and Rancho Tzabaco
"Mr. Phillips (Duvall Drake Phillips)
served with distinction in the Missouri Mounted Volunteers in 1847 and
was one of the 28 men who accompanied Kit Carson when he served as
dispatch bearer to General Kearney in California. In 1856 he
settled on the 223 acre adobe home ranch in Dry Creek Valley."
From the obituary of Mrs. Amelia Bell
D. D. Phillips settled in the Dry Creek
Valley in 1856 and bought the adobe home and 132 acres from José German
Piña. He planted grape plants around 1870 and in the 1880s, prune
orchards. The adobe was only a fort, four walls and small portholes for
windows and a low doorway hung with bearskins. The adobe house was
occupied continuously by Phillips family members until the mid-1940s. It
is presently (4/25/1994) owned by Jack Long.
Information provided by Mrs. Hollis
Black - source was "A History of the Dry Creek Valley."
Sources:
-
Descendants of Mexican War Veterans
- Sonoma County Historical and
Biographical Record, p.471
-
History of Sonoma County, 1880
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The Piña's of Dry Creek and Rancho Tzabaco
-
Tzbasco Rancho Vineyards
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