Phillips, Perry Commodore

Perry Commodore Phillips was born on April 7, 1838, near Princeton, Gibson County, Indiana, to Robert and Celia Melbourne Phillips, and he journeyed to California by ox team in 1854 to pursue gold mining and farming. His wife, Elizabeth Hildebrand Phillips, was born on October 22, 1840, in Shelby County, Indiana, to Joseph and Anna Harkarader Hildebrand, before traveling across the plains with her family in 1853 to Sierra and Nevada Counties. The couple first met at Grizzly Hill, Nevada County, married on April 29, 1860, in Vaca Valley, Solano County, and settled on October 23, 1860, on land near the Kings River that became the Woodlawn Ranch.

Together, the couple established vast agricultural holdings including the Woodlawn, Fairview, Oakdale, Lakeside, Cross Creek, and Ducor ranches, which were eventually incorporated under the P. C. Phillips Corporation Company in July 1918. Perry contributed to regional growth as an early pioneer in local irrigation and a director for the People’s Ditch Company, while Elizabeth famously rode as one of the first passengers on the Southern Pacific Railway in Fresno County in September 1872. They raised eight children—Florence Ellen, Isabelle L., Carrie Winifred, Ada Bianca, Dora Elizabeth, George Hudson, Robert H., and Oscar Le Roy—and fostered Miss Lilian Emmett, creating a long-standing legacy as prominent landholders and honored community figures.