Читать книгу Memoirs of Milwaukee County, Volume 5 - Josiah Seymour Currey - Страница 15

Robert Andrew Phillips, president of the Jell-Sope Company, one of the leading manufacturing industries of Milwaukee, is numbered among the self-made men of the city. Diligence and determination have enabled him to overcome obstacles and difficulties in his path and step by step he has advanced in his business career. He was born in Dunfermline, Scotland, June 13, 1878, and represents one of the old families of that country, the ancestral line being traced back to the thirteenth century. Robert A. Phillips is one of the hereditary burghers of his home city and has the freedom of the city at his command, having inherited the privilege from his ancestors. He is the only man in the United States who possesses the title of burgher by inheritance. His grandfather, also a native of Dunfermline, Scotland, was Charles Phillips, who lived to the notable age of ninety-six years. The father, Robert Andrew Phillips, Sr., died in the year 1912. He had married Margaret McPherson, who passed away in 1900. She was a daughter of James McPherson, also a native of Dunfermline, and a representative of the world-famous McPherson clan.

Robert Andrew Phillips spent his youthful days in the acquirement of a public and high school education in his native town and when his textbooks were put aside he began learning the trade of a millwright, serving an apprenticeship of seven years. He was employed during that entire period in his home town, but at length he determined not only to leave his native village but also his native land, that he might try his fortune in the new world. Accordingly, in 1903 he crossed the Atlantic to the United States and after six months spent in New York he proceeded to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, later making his way to Chicago and ultimately coming to Milwaukee in the year 1905. Here he worked as a pattern maker in the employ of the Allis-Chalmers Manufacturing Company for three years, at the end of which time he began pattern making on his own account and conducted his business for six years under the name of the Phillips Pattern Company. In July, 1920, he founded his present business, buying out the plant of the Myron E. Meyer Manufacturing Company, the oldest soap-making concern in Milwaukee, the business having been established in 1885. The company manufactures a transparent vegetable oil soap, which is used for all general cleaning purposes. It is a soft soap, which can be used to greater advantage than most of the hard soaps. Many thousands of families in Milwaukee and other parts of the state are now using this soap for domestic purposes. In February, 1921, the business was incorporated and the name changed to the Jell-Sope Company. The place of business is at No. 573 Island avenue, whence the firm sends out its product to the wholesale and retail trade, finding a market throughout the United States. It does a large mail order business.

On the 28th of September, 1907, Mr. Phillips was married to Miss Louise Rayfield of Minnesota Junction, Wisconsin, who is of German descent. They have become parents of three children: Romney, Louise and Louis, all pupils in the Milwaukee schools. Mi. Phillips and his wife are members of the Christian Science church and he belongs to Lake Lodge, No. 187, A. F. & A. M., of Milwaukee; and Lake Chapter, No. 86, R. A. M. He was made a Mason in St. George Lodge in Scotland and demitted to his present lodge. He is a loyal follower of the teachings and purposes of the craft, exemplifying in his life the beneficent spirit which underlies the order. He has never regretted his determination to come to the new world, for while he still has deep love for the land of hills and heather he is greatly attached to the land of his adoption, where he has found splendid business opportunities that have led him to the goal of prosperity.