The Good Intent

by John Renning Phillips

2007 · John Renning Phillips

In 1918, John Pressley Phillips, son of W. W. Phillips of Fresno, married Ruth Anderson, the daughter of David Pressley Anderson of Santa Rosa. Although not related, their fathers had more in common than just their middle names. They both descended from solid, southern families established that could trace their bloodlines to nobility in 17th Century Britain. Rooted in America, family members included both a British Loyalist as and a signer of the Declaration of Independence. They flourished as planters in South Carolina and Mississippi until the Civil War. Like many Confederate families reduced to nothing at war's end, the Phillips and Andersons came to California to start over. Both families thrived -- in farming, banking, dentistry, politics, the arts and community leadership -- especially in the fertile Central Valley. The marriage of these two southern families has linked two surprisingly rich and distinguished threads of ancestry. The names of relations in the near and distant past may startle as well as impress the reader. John Renning Phillips attended public schools in Fresno, California and earned a degree in economics from Occidental College. He has lived in San Francisco and London and currently resides in New York City with his wife and daughter. This is his first book.