Margaret C. Phillips
Margaret C. Phillips was born at Paisley, Renfrewshire, Scotland, on 7 November 1826. Her parents were John Phillips and Christiana Addison, both born at Dunfermline. Her brother William Addison Phillips was two years older. She was about twelve when the family emigrated to Randolph County, Illinois, where her mother's brothers William and David Addison had settled. A museum panel at Salina dates the crossing to 1839; other accounts give 1838. Her father died in Randolph County in February 1842, and her mother raised the children alone.
In August 1849, at Chester, she married Benjamin J. F. Hanna, a printer who had just founded the Chester Herald. Their children were Edwin, born in 1850; Franklin, born in 1854, who died in March 1857; Christina, born at Chester in July 1857; Benjamin, born at Alton in 1860; and Lucie, born in 1864. From 1856 to 1861 her husband edited the Alton Courier.
In November 1862 President Lincoln made her husband a quartermaster of volunteers, and he was gone until 1866. Margaret took the children west to Salina, Kansas. Her brother William had founded the town in 1858, and her widowed mother had come there in 1860. During the war Margaret lived with "her mother, Christina Phillips, and brothers."
After the war her husband founded the Salina Herald, the town's first newspaper, in February 1867. Margaret wrote for it. In 1877 he became Register of the U.S. Land Office at Hays City, and the office moved to WaKeeney in 1879. The 1880 census lists her at WaKeeney as "Margret," born in Scotland. Her daughter Christina married William Henry Dann, a clerk in that office, and her daughter Lucie married B. F. Morgan of WaKeeney in 1882.
Her husband died in Washington in December 1891 and was buried at Salina. Margaret died at Salina on 5 February 1908, aged 81. She was buried at Gypsum Hill Cemetery, Block A, Lot 36. Her stone reads "MARGARET PHILLIPS HANNA / NOV. 7. 1826 / FEB. 5. 1908."
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Cite: Heirology, "Margaret C. Phillips (1826-1908)", https://heirology.com/ancestors/margaret-c-phillips-1826-1908-9dc18c.