PHELPS, Preston E.

PHELPS, HEATON, CROSS, SULLIVAN

Posted By: Chantel Schmitt (email)
Date: 5/6/2012 at 17:14:00

Preston E. Phelps (1847-1924)

P. E. Phelps, born in Washington County Wisconsin, November 14, 1847, of Chauncey M. and Alma Heaton Phelps, had been involved in livestock business since his youth. He married Ella D. Cross in 1871 and with his brother-in-law, Frank F. Cross, he came to Rockford in 1880. For the next 30 odd years Phelps and Cross conducted a successful stock buying and shipping business. Phelps owned a great deal of grazing land in the south and western part of the township, purchased the Lime Creek mill in the mid 1880s and used the extensive stockyards near the railroad depot. In 1888 at a cost of $11,000 he built Rockford's first truly large home, where he lived until his death in 1924. The home was on the site of the present B.C Sullivan residence.

Vala, Michael F. The Story of Rockford, 335. M.F. Vala Publishing, Dubuque, IA. 1970.

ORIGINAL CITATION:
History of Floyd County, 1917, 634-635; obit.