James Phillips

Life and Orange County connections

Dated events connected with this person, earliest first. See these 18 dated events in the chronology →

1. 1820 Professor Denison Olmsted buys the Widow Puckett house on East Franklin Street In 1820 Denison Olmsted bought the two-story Federal house and lot at 501 East Franklin Street from the Puckett family. From 1826 it was home to the family of mathematics professor James Phillips. People: James PhillipsSearch the index · NC Digital Collections: Chapel Hill Historic Sites Survey: Final Report (1992), p. 37
2. 1825 Trustees take over Denison Olmsted's house for the professors of chemistry When Olmsted resigned in December 1825 to teach at Yale, the trustees bought at cost the house he had purchased from Mrs. Puckett for $1,300 and repaired. The lot was set apart for the professors of chemistry, and the house was later the home of James Phillips and then of President Venable. People: James PhillipsSearch the index · Documenting the American South: Kemp P. Battle, History of the University of North Carolina, vol. I (1907), p. 299
3. 1826 The Phillips family, with infant Cornelia, moves to Chapel Hill James Phillips moved his family from New York to Chapel Hill in 1826 when he became professor of mathematics at the University of North Carolina, where he taught until his death in 1867. His daughter Cornelia, born in Harlem in March 1825, grew up in the village. People: James PhillipsSearch the index · UNC Libraries: Cornelia Phillips Spencer Papers, 1833-1975 (#00683), finding aid
4. 1830 Professor James Phillips hires David Barham from his owner as a college servant In 1830 Professor James Phillips hired David Barham from William Barham to work as a college servant. A university account book page from the same year shows students paying a two-dollar fee to compensate the slaveholders whose people were hired as servants. People: James PhillipsUNC University Archives (For the Record): The Names of the Enslaved People who Built the University of North Carolina
5. June 22, 1831 Friends of education organize the North Carolina Institute of Education at Chapel Hill During commencement week a meeting adopted a constitution on Benjamin M. Smith's motion, elected Simmons J. Baker president and made professors Elisha Mitchell, William Hooper and James Phillips its executive committee. The Institute met at the next few commencements and enrolled about 130 members before it lapsed. People: Benjamin Smith, Elisha Mitchell, James PhillipsSearch the index · Documenting the American South: Kemp P. Battle, History of the University of North Carolina, vol. I (1907), p. 339
6. 1833 James Phillips is licensed to preach and later serves New Hope Presbyterian Church Mathematics professor James Phillips joined the Presbyterian church in 1832 and was licensed to preach by Orange Presbytery in 1833. He was later ordained and installed as minister of New Hope Presbyterian Church, about seven miles outside Chapel Hill, and shared the university chapel work with Elisha Mitchell.Search the index · NCpedia (Dictionary of North Carolina Biography): Phillips, James
7. 1836 James Phillips opens a female school in Chapel Hill In 1836 mathematics professor James Phillips announced Phillips' Female School in Chapel Hill. Mrs. Phillips and a teacher from Emma Willard's seminary at Troy, New York, did most of the teaching. People: James PhillipsLefler and Wager, Orange County, 1752-1952 (1953), p. 137
8. August 1836 to December 1865 James Phillips begins nearly thirty years as stated supply at New Hope The university professor began preaching at New Hope in August 1836 and served it until December 1865, longer than any other minister. Because Chapel Hill long had no Presbyterian church, New Hope heard him almost every Sunday for years.Search the index · NC Digital Collections: D. I. Craig, Historical Sketch of New Hope Church in Orange County, N.C. (1891), p. 29
9. fall 1840 Fresh Treat riot and a textbook rebellion bring dismissals In the fall of 1840 a drinking feast paid for by new students turned into a riot in which tutors' windows were broken, faculty were stoned, classrooms were wrecked and professors' horses were ridden, and soon after all the blackboards were burned. Several students were dismissed, three more for defying James Phillips's rule against books in recitation, and the trustees approved a faculty resolution to prosecute serious outrages in the courts. People: James Phillips, David L. Swain, Elisha MitchellSearch the index · Documenting the American South: Kemp P. Battle, History of the University of North Carolina, vol. I (1907), p. 464
10. July 1844 Charles Phillips returns to Chapel Hill as a tutor of mathematics Phillips accepted a call from President David L. Swain in July 1844 to return to the University of North Carolina as his father's assistant. He held the post of tutor of mathematics until 1853. People: David L. Swain, James PhillipsSearch the index · NCpedia: Phillips, Charles
11. 1846 James Phillips buys the Village Chapel lot for the Presbyterian church Professor James Phillips, as trustee, bought for $200 the lot where the Union or Village Chapel stood, as a site for the Presbyterian church, on condition that no burials be made there. The old chapel was moved a few hundred yards north, enlarged, and long served as the village public school.Search the index · Documenting the American South: Kemp P. Battle, History of the University of North Carolina, vol. I (1907), p. 611
12. 1849 The Presbyterian church on Franklin Street is finished and dedicated Built with money and effort from James and Charles Phillips, Elisha Mitchell and President Swain, the small Presbyterian church on the old Grand Avenue ground was completed and formally dedicated. People: James Phillips, Charles Phillips, Elisha Mitchell, David L. SwainSearch the index · Bernard Lee Bryant Jr., Occupants and Structures of Franklin Street, Chapel Hill (1998; Chapel Hill Historical Society, 1999), scan p. 91
13. 1854–1862 James Phillips keeps weather records at Chapel Hill From 1854 to 1862 Professor James Phillips kept weather records at Chapel Hill. They survive in the Southern Historical Collection alongside Chapel Hill records kept from December 1879 to 1882 by Professors W. B. Phillips and Francis Preston Venable. People: Francis Preston VenableSearch the index · UNC-Chapel Hill Libraries Catalog: Chapel Hill (N.C.) weather records, 1854-1862; 1879-1882
14. March 9, 1862 New Hope's 1805 church burns The church burned on a Saturday night, most people believing it was set on purpose. The next morning James Phillips preached to the congregation under the trees, and through the summer of 1862 they worshipped under a large arbor built on the grounds. People: James PhillipsSearch the index · NC Digital Collections: D. I. Craig, Historical Sketch of New Hope Church in Orange County, N.C. (1891), p. 26
15. 14 April 1866 Charles Phillips is ordained at New Hope Church in Orange County Phillips was ordained on 14 April 1866 at Orange County's New Hope Church, which had long been under the pastoral charge of his father James Phillips. Orange Presbytery had convened there on Wednesday, April 11, and ordained Phillips and Calvin H. Wiley during the meeting. People: James PhillipsSearch the index · NCpedia: Phillips, Charles
16. March 14, 1867 James Phillips dies in the college chapel On the morning of March 14, 1867, James Phillips went early to the college chapel to lead morning prayers and was found dead on the rostrum as the bell rang. He had taught at the university since 1826 and was buried in the Chapel Hill Cemetery.Search the index · DigitalNC: Hillsborough Recorder, March 20, 1867, p. 2 (President Swain's letter of March 14, 1867)
17. 1919 Phillips Hall opens, named for three Phillips family teachers Phillips Hall opened on the Chapel Hill campus in 1919, honoring three members of the Phillips family who taught at the university in the nineteenth century: James Phillips, his son Charles Phillips and his grandson William Battle Phillips. People: Charles PhillipsSearch the index · Carolina Story: Virtual Museum of University History: James Phillips, Charles Phillips, and William Battle Phillips and Phillips Hall
18. probably 1930s A Phillips grandchild sets a headstone for Dilsey Craig A small granite headstone was placed over the grave of Dilsey Craig, who died in 1894 after sixty years enslaved, mostly in the household of Professor James Phillips. Its inscription says a Phillips grandchild erected it, and its style suggests the 1930s. People: James PhillipsNC State Historic Preservation Office: Old Chapel Hill Cemetery, National Register nomination (OR0496), p. 11