Roland William Phillips, 1876-1950, was the son of Elijah Phillips and Florence Hairston.  Roland was born in Bowie County about the same year that his family came here with the Welch family from Alabama by way of Arkansas.  Elijah Phillips died before Roland was 12 years old and Florence remarried.  Elijah Phillips was buried in the Pleasant Grove Cemetery which is just east of the Wards Creek Church and Cemetery.  This is a cemetery that has been vandalized during the last few years and the old church that stood beside it has been gone a long time.  Many members of the Welch and Prestridge families are also buried there.  Roland had three younger brothers: Hyram, Earnest, and Rufus.  Hyram and Earnest probably are buried in the same cemetery with their father and Rufus lived to be a grown man and married and had eight children in Missouri.  The family of Elijah and Florence Phillips appears in the 1880 census.  Elijah was 31 and Florence was 24.

The Hairston family also appears in the 1880 census.  Florence's mother was Fathe? E, a widow at the age of 47.  Remember these people did not live as long as we do because the health facilities were very poor, knowledge about diseases was lacking and pioneer life is just generally hazardous to your health.  Florence had a younger sister, Alabama "Bama" that married a Dr Oliver.  When Roland's father died, he went to live with his Aunt Bama after his mother married a Miller and moved to Arizona.  Florence Hairston Phillips Miller died and is buried in Alabama.  She had a brother, R J Hairston who was district clerk in Bowie County in 1890-1892.  In 1900 Roland Phillips was living with his cousin, George Welch. 

In 1900 Roland Phillips married Lorena Townsend, 1882-1922, who was the daughter of James Monroe Townsend and Will Ella Pace.  Roland went to work for Jim Ashford at Carbondale as an overseer on the farm.  The main crop there was cotton.  Carbondale is between Maud and Simms on the Cotton Belt Railroad.  At that time there was a store and and post office and Cotton Gin at Carbondale.

Two sons were born to Roland and Lorena Phillips, Hairston and Marvin Phillips.  Hairston married Emma Lee White and Marvin married Irene Burkhalter.  After Lorena Townsend Phillips died in 1904, Roland Phillips married Minnie Ola Barfield, 1887-1986, in 1907.  They had eight children:
1. Infant girl
2. Nora Florence, born 1910, married Thomas Brown
3. Tom, born 1912, married and divorced Opal Fountain
4. Clarence Phillips, born 1915, married Ruby Perry
5. Ray, born 1917, married Octavia Honeycut
6. Hugh Jackson, born 1920, married Ima Jean Rachel
7. Cader, born 1922, married Dorothy Peek
8. Lucille, born 1926

Minnie Ola Barfield was the daughter of Wade Hampton Barfield and Josephine "Josie" McDonald.  Wade Hampton Barfield was the second son of Ritt Barto Barfield, 1838-1885 and Mary "Moxie" A Compton, 1839-1930.  They are buried in the old Barfield or Peters Cemetery at Old Boston.  Josephine McDonald was the daughter of Sam R and Elizabeth McDonald from Alabama.