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Local figure

Samuel Field Phillips

Samuel Field Phillips grew up in Chapel Hill, where his family moved in 1826, practiced law there from 1845 and taught in the university law school from 1854 to 1859. He represented Orange in the House of Commons before moving to Raleigh in 1867 and later became U.S. solicitor general.

Source: NCpedia: Phillips, Samuel Field

Also found in catalogs as Samuel (Samuel Field) Phillips.

1824–1903 · Dates from the Library of Congress · Library of Congress authority record ↗

4 works about Samuel Field Phillips are indexed here.

Life and Orange County connections

Dated events connected with this person, in date order. See these 15 dated events in the chronology →

  1. Samuel F. Phillips opens a law practice in Chapel Hill Phillips, who had grown up in Chapel Hill after his family moved there in 1826, studied law under President David L. Swain and in the new university law school, then began practising in Chapel Hill when he came of age in 1845. People: David L. SwainSearch the index · NCpedia: Phillips, Samuel Field
  2. A boys' preparatory school meets in Samuel Phillips's law office Samuel Phillips's small stuccoed law office on East Franklin Street reportedly housed a preparatory school for boys in 1847. Later in the century William Horn Battle taught law classes in the same building. People: William Horn BattleSearch the index · NC Digital Collections: Chapel Hill Historic Sites Survey: Final Report (1992), p. 36
  3. Literary societies move into new halls in the enlarged Old East and Old West The northward extensions of Old East and Old West, designed by A. J. Davis and built by Isaac J. Collier and Kendall B. Waitt for $9,360, were finished in 1848 with debating halls and library alcoves for the two societies. At the Dialectic opening James Mebane, the society's first president in 1795, sat beside the student president, Kemp P. Battle. People: Samuel (Samuel Field) Phillips, Alexander Jackson Davis, Kemp Plummer Battle, Isaac J. Collier, Samuel Field Phillips, James Mebane, Kendall B. WaittSearch the index · Documenting the American South: Kemp P. Battle, History of the University of North Carolina, vol. I (1907), p. 513
  4. Zebulon Vance studies law at Chapel Hill Vance entered the University of North Carolina early in 1851 and spent the rest of the year at Chapel Hill studying law under Judge William H. Battle and Samuel F. Phillips. He obtained his law licence in December 1851 and set up an office at Asheville early in 1852. People: William Horn Battle, Samuel Field PhillipsSearch the index · NCpedia: Vance, Zebulon Baird (Research Branch, NC Office of Archives and History)
  5. Samuel F. Phillips teaches in the university law school From 1854 to 1859 Phillips taught in the university law school at Chapel Hill. People: William Horn BattleSearch the index · NCpedia: Phillips, Samuel Field
  6. North Carolina Railroad finished to Durham's Station On December 20, 1854 the Recorder reported trains running daily from Raleigh to within a mile and a half of Durham's Station, whose warehouse was finished. The railroad was completed to Durham's Station, then a single house on Dr. Bartlett Durham's plantation in Orange County, and the company gave legislators a free ride there. From then until 1882 a two-horse hack line between Chapel Hill and Durham replaced the four-horse stage to Raleigh. People: Samuel (Samuel Field) Phillips, Samuel Field PhillipsSearch the index · Documenting the American South: Kemp P. Battle, History of the University of North Carolina, vol. I (1907), p. 641 · Also: Hillsborough Recorder, December 20, 1854, p. 2
  7. Samuel F. Phillips represents Orange County in the House of Commons A Whig, Phillips was elected to the House of Commons in 1856 and 1858 and again in 1864 and 1865, representing Orange, and was chosen speaker in 1865. He moved to Raleigh in 1867.Search the index · NCpedia: Phillips, Samuel Field
  8. Samuel Phillips builds a gable-and-wing house beside his law office In 1856 Samuel Phillips built his family a two-story house at 407 East Franklin Street, beside his law office. With a projecting front wing and arched French doors and casements, it was the first house in the village to break from the box-like Federal and Greek Revival plan. People: Samuel Field PhillipsSearch the index · NC Digital Collections: M. Ruth Little, The Town and Gown Architecture of Chapel Hill, 1795-1975 (2004), p. 28
  9. Samuel F. Phillips closes his law school and shares the office with Judge Battle Phillips, who had taught law in his Franklin Street office since 1854, closed the school, went back to practice, and shared the building with Judge William Horn Battle. People: William Horn BattleSearch the index · Bernard Lee Bryant Jr., Occupants and Structures of Franklin Street, Chapel Hill (1998; Chapel Hill Historical Society, 1999), scan p. 107
  10. Orange County sends John Berry and Samuel F. Phillips to the 1865 convention Orange would have elected Graham to the postwar convention, but his pardon was held up, so he withdrew and voters chose Berry and Phillips. People: Samuel (Samuel Field) Phillips, William A. Graham, William W. Holden, Samuel Field PhillipsSearch the index · Lefler and Wager, Orange County, 1752-1952 (1953), p. 109 · Also: Hillsborough Recorder, September 27, 1865, p. 2
  11. Samuel F. Phillips sells his East Franklin Street house to Henry J. Hogan Samuel Phillips sold his East Franklin Street house and lot to Henry J. Hogan, who moved to Tennessee right away and left the place to his father, William J. Hogan. The sale sent Phillips's mother and his sister Cornelia Phillips Spencer to live in Charles Phillips's house. People: Cornelia Phillips Spencer, Charles PhillipsSearch the index · Bernard Lee Bryant Jr., Occupants and Structures of Franklin Street, Chapel Hill (1998; Chapel Hill Historical Society, 1999), scan p. 123
  12. Fire guts Person Hall Person Hall, the old chapel finished in 1798 and recently given to the chemistry department, burned on February 6, 1877, apparently from a stovepipe set too close to a roof rafter. The thick walls stood, the loss came to about $1,000, and gifts from A. F. Redd, J. S. Carr and others paid to restore it. By mid-April workmen under a Hillsborough builder had raised a new roof and new window frames on the old walls. People: Julian S. Carr, Samuel (Samuel Field) Phillips, Samuel Field PhillipsSearch the index · Documenting the American South: Kemp P. Battle, History of the University of North Carolina, vol. II (1912), p. 127 · Also: Hillsborough Recorder, April 11, 1877, p. 3
Show all 15 dated events
  1. The Alumni Association names a committee to help raise money for the university The university's Alumni Association appointed Julian S. Carr, Fred Phillips, S. F. Phillips, Mills L. Eure and Charles M. Stedman to work with the trustees in raising funds. Secretary W. L. Saunders was receiving gifts, among them $5 from James W. Wilson of the class of 1852. People: Julian S. Carr, Samuel Field Phillips, William L. SaundersSearch the index · The Chapel Hill Ledger, February 21, 1880, p. 2
  2. Adam A. Kluttz buys the old Sam Phillips house and law office After the owner, Margaret Miller, died, her only heir, Mary Jane Cooper, sold the old Sam Phillips house on East Franklin Street, with the old law office, to the merchant Adam A. Kluttz. People: Samuel Field Phillips, Adam Alexander KluttzSearch the index · Bernard Lee Bryant Jr., Occupants and Structures of Franklin Street, Chapel Hill (1998; Chapel Hill Historical Society, 1999), scan p. 169
  3. June Spencer Love sets a stone on Dilsey Craig's grave in the Chapel Hill cemetery When June Spencer Love placed grave markers in the Chapel Hill cemetery for her mother, her grandparents, and her uncle Samuel Phillips and his wife, she also put one on the grave of Dilsey, who had been enslaved in the James Phillips household and stayed on as its cook after freedom. Love writes that both June and her mother had looked after Dilsey in her old age. People: Dilsey Craig, James Phillips, Samuel Field Phillips, June Spencer LoveSearch the index · James Lee Love, Recollections (1920-1921), scan p. 276

People named in the same events

People named in the same dated entries as Samuel Field Phillips, those sharing the most entries first. Each line links one of the shared entries in the chronology, where its source is cited. A shared entry shows these people in the same event, not how well they knew each other.

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Indexed works

Works about or by Samuel Field Phillips. Each links to the institution that holds or provides it. Background reading appears below.

Three little children of long ago, 1901.

Pace, Fannie Phillips · 1901

A thirty two page account written in 1901 by Fannie Phillips Pace under the title 'Three little children of long ago', part of the Southern Historical Collection at UNC, collection 1759. A note records that the original was in private hands in 1950. Topics include the Phillips family of Chapel Hill, including James, Charles and Samuel Phillips and Cornelia Phillips Spencer, and on children's social life in the town.

Included because: Catalog heading in the UNC record: Phillips, Samuel (Samuel Field), 1824-1903.

UNC

David Matthew Thompson papers, 1863-1938

Thompson, David Matthew, 1844-1925 · 1863

Papers of David Matthew Thompson (1844-1925) covering 1863 to 1938, part of the Southern Historical Collection at UNC, collection 3957-z. Topics range from Confederate army life and soldiers' correspondence at one end and early football at the University of North Carolina and Trinity College at the other, with the 'North Carolina University magazine', Cornelia Phillips Spencer, Samuel F. Phillips and university president Edward Kidder Graham named.

Included because: Their name appears in the record.

UNC

John H. Wheeler (1806-1882) Diaries and Papers

Wheeler, John H. · 1854

Diaries and papers of John Hill Wheeler of Hertford County, historian, legislator, state treasurer from 1843 to 1845 and minister to Nicaragua from 1854 to 1857. The diaries, a broken run from 1854 to 1882, follow his social and political life in Washington, D.C. University commencements at Chapel Hill and his work on North Carolina history also come up. State Archives of North Carolina, MfP.51.

Included because: Their name appears in the record.

Phillips Hall, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, N.C.

R. W. Foister, Chapel Hill, N.C

Phillips Hall, the university's engineering laboratories, on an undated postcard published by R. W. Foister of Chapel Hill. The caption explains the name: four generations of the Phillips family taught at the University of North Carolina, among them James, Charles and Samuel Field Phillips.

Included because: Their name appears in the record.

Places in this person’s story

Buildings, schools, churches and other sites named in the dated events on this page, the most often named first. The map shows the 5 with a known location.

Map tiles © OpenStreetMap contributors. Site locations from the N.C. State Historic Preservation Office survey, Open Orange, Orange County GIS, OpenStreetMap and a few other published sources named on each site’s page; town and community pins show approximate locations.

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Background

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Collections and databases

  • NC LIVE: prepared search for Samuel Field Phillips Library card Search NC LIVE for this subject and Orange County. You can change the search terms. Sign in through your North Carolina library to access the materials.
  • Ancestry Library Edition In the libraryOrange County Public Library Census, birth, death and marriage records, and more, free on the public computers at OCPL libraries

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