Blair Allen Phillips

PHILLIPS, ROSENKRANS, FORT

Posted By: Debbie Gerischer (email)
Date: 4/10/2009 at 19:06:07

A Narrative History
of
The People of Iowa
with
SPECIAL TREATMENT OF THEIR CHIEF ENTERPRISES IN
EDUCATION, RELIGION, VALOR, INDUSTRY,
BUSINESS, ETC.
by
EDGAR RUBEY HARLAN, LL. B., A. M.
Curator of the
Historical, Memorial and Art Department of Iowa
Volume IV
THE AMERICAN HISTORICAL SOCIETY, Inc.
Chicago and New York
1931

BLAIR ALLEN PHILLIPS is president of the White-Phillips Company, investment
bankers, with offices in the First National Bank Building at Davenport and 39
South La Salle Street, Chicago, with connections in the financial world
throughout the Middle West.

He was born n a farm near by Albany, Illinois, May 22, 1888. His parents,
Benjamin Franklin and Mary (Rosenkrans) Phillips, are still living on the old
farm at Albany. Mr. Phillips is of Welsh ancestry in the paternal line,
while his mother's people were originally German and Dutch. One branch of the
family produced Gen William S. Rosecrans, one of the great Union leaders in the
Civil war, who spelled his name slightly differently. The Phillips family
has been in America for nine generations.

Blair Allen Phillips was educated in the common schools of an Illinois
agricultural district. His home was on a farm until he was eighteen, at which
time he became a student in Brown's Business College at Davenport. After leaving
college he became associated with George M. Bechtel & Company i the bond
business, later became vice president of the company, and had the reputation of
being one of the largest single producers in the bond and investment field in
the State of Iowa. In 1919 he and George White founded the White-Phillips
Company, each of the partners having had a wide experience in the purchase and
sale of municipal bonds. From the beginning the White-Phillips Company has
specialized in safe and secure investment securities, and it has become a
buying and selling organization of nation wide scope. The company has handled
more than $100,000,000 worth of bonds since it was founded.

Mr. Phillips has been an active member of the Davenport Chamber of Commerce.
He is a member of the Rotary Club, is affiliated with Albany Lodge No. 566,
A. F. and A. M., is a member of the Scottish Rite Consistory and Mystic
Shrine, member of the Davenport Country Club, Hamilton Club, Chicago, and Saint
John's Methodist Episcopal Church.

He married, in 1912, Clara M. Fort, a native of Davenport. They have three
children, Jeanne Marie, Blair Allen, Jr., and Richard Elsworth.