 He finished his journey to Oregon on the Meek Cutoff as part of Stephen Meek's "lost wagon train".John Phillips, born in 1814, was a native of Wiltshire England who came to the U.S. in 1834 and settled in Florida.After living in New Orleans—where he met and married Elizabeth Hibbard in 1839—and St. Louis, he came to Oregon and bought the Turner donation land claim in Polk County for $100.