During the June meeting of the Chautauqua County Genealogical Society held in the Steele Room of the Barker Library, Cassadaga Village historian John Sipos gave a history of the Phillips family. The Phillips family were a well known family, of many different occupations from a physician, dentist, drug store owner, grocery store owner, builder, and hotel owner.

The family which dates back to the early 1800’s traveled to the Stockon town area, and settled in the village of Cassadaga. They helped to build the village, and at one time there was a very large hotel in the village park at the corners of Main Street and Maple Avenue (known as Mayville Road then). The hotel, known as the Phillips Temperance House was built about 1850 and burned in late 1895. When the hotel burned, the foundation was surrounded by a white rail fence, to keep people from falling in. Some years later, the foundation was filled in. The Phillips family are buried in the Cassadaga Cemetery in a circle of graves known as the Phillips Circle. It is the in the first section closest to Maple Avenue. There are 36 family graves in a circle surrounding the parents and grandparents who are buried in the middle next to the monument. The last burial was in 1958.

Sipos, who serves as the historian, has completed much research on the family and presented it to the Cassadaga Village Board members and the genealogical society.