FOW Tour – 655 Main St, Phillips-Moser House

On May 10, 2021 Friends of Wheeling toured 655 Main Street, the Phillips-Moser House.

The façade of this building is quite old, with corbeled brick cornice, segmented arch dormers, and simple stone lintels and sills.

655 Main – From Ross Frazier on Feb 20, 2011: This was the Moser residence. Moser was a relative of the Phillips family (653 Main). Aunt Nell Moser was the daughter of Mrs. Moore. Nell Moser had one daughter Sarah, Sarah was a long time Gym teacher at the Old Wheeling High School. I bet she was there over 30 years. Sarah Moser went to the only Baptist Church in Wheeling, it was out the Pike on the National Road just east of Edgington Lane, Quite close the Jewish Synagogue.
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The Arthur M. Phillips family owned several of the homes in this stretch of Main Street. Arthur M. Phillips (born 1783) was a builder of steamboat engines and had his business operations along the river, behind these houses. He and two of his sons (Arthur, Jr. and Hanson) signed the Ordinance of Secession, urging Virginia to secede from the Union at the beginning of the Civil War. They were thus labeled “traitors.” Arthur, Sr.’s son James, a riverboat engineer, was killed in a boiler explosion on the packet boat Missouri in 1866. [More information of various members of the family appears below and in the description of the neighboring 653 Main Street home.]

In 1869, Arthur M. Phillips deeded the property to Sarah Phillips [1842-1900, nee Miller, the wife of Arthur’s son, Arthur M. Phillips, Jr. (c. 1818 – 1894)]. In 1899, Sarah and Arthur Jr.’s daughter Nellie Phillips became the owner of the property, for the sum or $500, with the stipulation that Sarah “reserved use, possession, rents, etc. during her life.” Nellie (1880 – 1962) married pharmacist Albert Moser. They later divorced, and Nellie remained living in 655 Main until her death at age 81. Her daughter, Sarah H. Moser, became the property owner in 1941. The next owner was Thaddeus Podratsky, who purchased it in 1991 and became the first person outside of the extended Phillips family to own the property. The current owners are Art & Jacki Burnside.

The upstairs of the Federal-style house has never been remodeled and features original woodwork. The kitchen was originally downstairs.

Information on other members of the extended Phillips family

From "HISTORY OF THE UPPER OHIO VALLEY," Vol. I, pages 397-398.
Brant & Fuller, 1890.

DANIEL Z. PHILLIPS
Daniel Z. Phillips, justice of the peace of Wheeling, was born in that city June 11, 1850. He is a grandson of A. M. Phillips, a native of Pennsylvania. Prior to 1820 he [A.M. Phillips] removed to Steubenville, Ohio, and in 1828 or 1829 settled at Wheeling. He was a blacksmith by trade, and soon after his arrival started a machine shop, which he conducted up to 1844. Subsequently he served as inspector of hulls by appointment of President Buchanan, and was removed by President Lincoln. He had the following children: Arthur M., James W., George, Samuel, Hans W., John, Andrew J.; Jane, wife of Daniel Dunbar; Mary, wife of Lucius Hoge, and Margaret.
Hans W. Phillips was a book-keeper in his father's shop and succeeded to the business and conducted it until 1872 or 1873, when he sold out. He was an enterprising man, took an active part in municipal and county affairs, and held the office of justice of the peace for twelve or fourteen years. He married Ann E., daughter of Daniel Zane, who is the son of Ebenezer Zane, one of the original settlers of the present site of Wheeling. By his marriage there were eleven children born, four of whom grew to maturity: Daniel Z., Robert H.; Ella, wife of W. O.
McCloskey, and Marrie L. W., wife of H. L. Robertson.
Daniel Z., the subject of this mention, was reared in Wheeling and given a common
school education, after which he entered upon a business career, which continued until August, 1882, when he was appointed justice of the peace to fill an unexpired term. Filling the office to the entire satisfaction of the public, he was elected in 1883 and again in 1887. Mr. Phillips was married April 27, 1879, to Emma, daughter of John Burgett, of Monroe county, Ohio, and they have three children: Harold H., Daniel Z., Jr. and Aura W. Mr. Phillips is a member of the North
Street Methodist Episcopal church, and of the order of Knights of Pythias and A.O.U.W.

Wheeling Daily Intelligencer
Monday Morning, July 16, 1888

KILLED BY A STREET CAR
Small Boy Fatally Injured by
an Electric Motor
AT THE NORTH WHEELING
Terminus of the Citizens' Company's
Track on Main Street - Arthur
Phillips aged Ten Years,
Run Over Last Evening.

About 5 o'clock last evening a most distressing fatal accident occurred at the northern terminus of the Citizens' railway on Main street, by which a boy of ten years lost his life. At that time electrical car B ("Beatrice") of the consolidated lines, reached the northern turn table on a trip, in charge of Joseph
Hamilton. It was run on the platform to be turned, and several boys who had gathered around at once got close to it, as usual, to assist in the operation of reversing the car, which is done by hand by means of a strong pole.

One of these boys was Arthur Phillips, the 10-year-old son of Mr. A. P. Phillips, who lives at No. 327 Main street. In some way, young Phillips got on the track, and one of the wheels ran over one of his legs, cutting it off and inflicting other injuries of so grave a character that the boy died before he was gotten to his home, where he was at once taken.

So far as the testimony of bystanders indicates, the conductor of the car was not to blame. There has been some protest by the public against the speed at which the electric cars are run, and when the news of the accident spread, the impression at once became general that this was the cause of the accident, but such was not the case. There is nearly always a crowd of boys about the cars when they turn, and the wonder
is that an accident has not happened before this.
[Note, this young boy would have been the son of Arthur Phillips, Jr. and grandson of Arthur Phillips, Sr.]

For virtual tour: youtu.be/mik4ToHcxzQ