William A. Phillips

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William Addison Phillips (January 14, 1824 – November 30, 1893) was a Scottish-born American abolitionist journalist and politician who played a key role in Kansas before and after the Civil War. He immigrated to the United States with his parents in 1838, lived in Illinois, and later moved to Kansas. There he became a lawyer, worked as a newspaper correspondent, and supported the Free-State cause during Bleeding Kansas. He helped found Salina, Kansas, and became the first justice of the Kansas Supreme Court under the Leavenworth Constitution.

During the Civil War, Phillips joined the Union Army and rose to the rank of colonel. He led the Cherokee Indian Regiment in the 3rd Indian Home Guard and fought in battles such as Old Fort Wayne, Cane Hill, Prairie Grove, Fort Gibson, and Honey Springs. After the war, he served as prosecuting attorney of Cherokee County in 1865 and was a member of the Kansas House of Representatives that same year.

Phillips later served in the U.S. House of Representatives as a Republican from Kansas, first in the at-large district (1873–1875) and then for the 1st district (1875–1879) after redistricting. He was elected to the Fortieth, Forty-first, and Forty-second Congresses, serving March 4, 1873, to March 3, 1879. He did not win renomination in 1878. After leaving Congress, he worked as attorney for the Cherokee Indians in Washington, D.C., and he unsuccessfully ran for Congress again in 1890. The town of Phillipsburg, Kansas, was named in his honor. He died in Fort Gibson, Oklahoma (then Indian Territory) and was buried in Salina, Kansas.