In 1873, James Hoback (J.H.) and Margaret Day Phillips moved from Illinois to Texas by wagon train with their children. J.H. was instrumental in the early social, religious and economic development of Saint Jo, where he owned and operated a general store and hotel and served as the town’s Baptist preacher. His youngest son, George Washington (G.W.) Phillips (1863-1930), grew up in Saint Jo and at age 20 married Nannie Parker Gooch (1865-1937). During the late 1800s, G.W. bought and sold real estate and owned and operated the local G.W. Phillips Livery Stables, while also working as a horse trader, farmer and rancher. On January 6, 1897, he bought 320 acres on the eastern edge of Saint Jo, moved his family to a temporary dwelling on the property three years later, purchased additional acreage in 1902, and hired Barney Lewis in 1911 to construct the family home. Completed two years later, the house quickly became the center for social activities, and when the family was not working, they enjoyed baseball in the open field west of the house. Also known as The Big House, it displays Colonial Revival and Queen Anne architecture, with a two-story wood form, a hipped, wood-shingled roof, large upstairs and downstairs porches, numerous columns, hundreds of spindles, bay windows, twenty-one wood framed single pane windows, heart pine wood floors, and some of the original furniture. Generations of the Phillips family have occupied The Big House for over a hundred years and continue to contribute to Saint Jo.