PHINNEY. PHIPPS. 477 been its president and a director for the past seventeen years. He is also special agent for the United States treasury de- partment. Mr. Phinney has always enjoyed the re- laxation incident to agricultural pursuits, and, as a wide-awake Democrat, has never lost his interest in political movements. In 1853 he represented the town of Chatham in the Constitutional Convention. He was col- lector of the port of Barnstable under the ad- ministrations of Polk, Pierce, Buchanan and Johnson, and was three times elected to national Democratic conventions. He was elected a trustee of Humboldt College, Iowa ; has been twelve years a member of SYLVANUS B. PHINNEY. the state board of agriculture ; was major of the 1 st regiment, 3d brigade, 5th divis- ion, under Governor Lincoln ; eighteen years president of the Unitarian Cape Cod Conference ; and twenty-five years chairman of the parish committee of the Unitarian Society of Barnstable. He was a candidate for representative to Congress from his district. During the war of the rebellion he was appointed by Gov. Andrew one of the " Committee of One Hundred," and presented the Sand- wich Guards, company D, 3d regiment, Massachusetts militia, with a memorial flag. In visiting the Guards at Fortress Monroe, in March, 1S62, he was present to witness the battle between the iron-clads '■.Monitor" and " Merrimac." He was unswerving in his fidelity to the Union, and his determination to support the ad- ministration. Before the close of the war with Great Britain in 1812— '14, he was taken prisoner of war by the British frigate " Nymph," in Massachusetts Bay. The sloop " Enter- prise," on which he was a passenger, was fired into, and was afterwards boarded and burned. Major Phinney was present at the laying of the corner-stone of Bunker Hill Monu- ment, and met General Lafayette at the time. He was one of the earliest advo- cates of steam railroads in the days when even Nathan Hale, after one of his pow- erful arguments in their favor, was de- nounced by a Boston capitalist, who said : " It is a pity that a man of such ability as Nathan Hale should be engaged in such humbugs." Major Phinney has been twice married. His first wife, to whom he was married in Concord, May 8, 1832, was the daughter of Colonel Jonathan Hildreth of Concord, by whom he has three married sons and one daughter: Gorham Palfrey, Cordelia Eliza, Theodore Warren, and Robert John Walker, all living, and Cordelia Hildreth and Laura Henshaw, deceased. His sec- ond wife, whom he married in Fairfield, Conn., October 11, 1866, is the youngest daughter of the late Hon. Isaiah L. Green, who represented the district of Barnstable in Congress as early as 1S05. In 1862 Major Phinney represented Provincetown at Washington, upon the subject of the fishery treaty, when a hear- ing was held under President Grant. He has been largely interested in, and closely identified with, the business indus- tries of Plymouth county, is a prominent Mason, member of Boston Commandery, K. T., and a valued and respected citizen. PHIPPS, Marcus Chauncy, son of David and Elizabeth Phipps, was born in Milford, Worcester county, March 14, 1825. The common district school of those days furnished the facilities for his educa- tion, of which he availed himself until of age. He worked at the trade of box-mak- ing by the day for ten years. In 1S56 he went into business for him- self as box manufacturer, in Hopkinton. In 1863 he enlarged his establishment, re- moving to a better location in the town, and is still engaged in this line of work.
