William Battle Phillips

Life and Orange County connections

Storylines this person is part of, in date order. Each opens its own page, with its events date by date.

Dated events connected with this person, in date order. See these 10 dated events in the chronology →

During their lifetime

1. 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: James Phillips, Francis Preston Venable, William Battle Phillips Place: Chapel Hill · Also mentions: Southern Historical CollectionSearch the index · UNC-Chapel Hill Libraries Catalog: Chapel Hill (N.C.) weather records, 1854-1862; 1879-1882
2. between 1877 and 1881 James Cole Taylor works as an assistant at the state experiment station in Smith Hall James C. Taylor and William B. Phillips, Chapel Hill graduates of 1877, worked as assistants at the state's fertilizer control and experiment station at the university, with W. Warnecke of Germany and A. D. Mickle of Chapel Hill. The station had four rooms in Smith Hall. In December 1878 the Chapel Hill Ledger found it busy under Dr. Ledoux, Warnecke and Phillips, with Taylor handling its correspondence. People: James Cole Taylor, William Battle Phillips, Andrew Mickle Place: Chapel Hill · Also mentions: Smith HallSearch the index · Documenting the American South: Kemp P. Battle, History of the University of North Carolina, vol. II (1912), p. 138 · Also: The Chapel Hill Ledger, December 14, 1878, p. 2
3. June 1877 The reopened university graduates its first class At the 1877 commencement five men took degrees, William Battle Phillips of Chapel Hill a Ph.B. and Julian M. Baker, Frank M. Fremont, Joseph C. Powell and James C. Taylor the B.S. The 1876 commencement had had no graduates. People: James Cole Taylor, William Battle Phillips Place: Chapel Hill · Also named: Julian Meredith Baker, Frank Murray Fremont, Joseph Clay PowellSearch the index · Documenting the American South: Kemp P. Battle, History of the University of North Carolina, vol. II (1912), p. 134
4. June 17, 1879 The University Normal School opens its third session, with women admitted on equal terms President Battle opened the third Normal School in the college chapel, crediting Dr. Barnas Sears and the legislature, and announced that women teachers now attended with full rights rather than as invited guests. John J. Ladd again served as superintendent with a faculty including Charles D. McIver, J. L. Tomlinson, W. F. Tillett, W. B. Phillips and Miss E. M. Coe in the kindergarten, and about 150 were enrolled by the fourth day. People: Kemp Plummer Battle, William Battle Phillips Place: University Chapel, Chapel Hill · Also named: John J. Ladd, Charles D. McIver, Julius L. Tomlinson, W. F. Tillett, E. M. Coe, Barnas Sears, J. L. TomlinsonSearch the index · The Chapel Hill Ledger, June 21, 1879, p. 2
5. June 1882 James Lee Love wins the Phillips Mathematical Prize The sons of Charles Phillips had offered a prize for the best sophomore in mathematics. Love's marks in trigonometry and analytic geometry so far outran the class that Professor Ralph H. Graves dropped the planned examination and gave him the prize on his year's record; it came at commencement as thirty dollars with a letter from William B. Phillips. People: James Lee Love, William Battle Phillips, Ralph Henry Graves (1851-1889), Charles Phillips Place: UNC campus, Chapel Hill · Also named: Ralph H. GravesSearch the index · James Lee Love, Recollections (1920-1921), scan p. 189
6. 1883 Horace Williams earns a master's degree at the university Williams entered the state university at Chapel Hill in 1879 and in 1883 took both the B.A. and an M.A. His M.A. and William Battle Phillips's Ph.D., conferred at the same commencement, were the first advanced degrees the reopened university granted for further study. Before 1875 any graduate could receive the A.M. three years after the B.A. People: Henry Horace Williams, William Battle Phillips Place: Chapel HillSearch the index · Documenting the American South: Kemp P. Battle, History of the University of North Carolina, vol. II (1912), appendix of degrees in course, p. 807 (with pp. 231-232) · Also: NCpedia: Williams, Henry Horace
7. 1883 William Battle Phillips receives the university's first doctorate after the reopening In 1883 William Battle Phillips, one of the five graduates of 1877, received a Doctor of Philosophy, the first doctorate in Battle's list of degrees granted since the 1875 reopening. People: William Battle Phillips Place: Chapel HillSearch the index · Documenting the American South: Kemp P. Battle, History of the University of North Carolina, vol. II (1912), p. 807
8. June 1885 The trustees enlarge the faculty from nine to fifteen Meeting in Raleigh, the trustees chose from several hundred applicants Thomas Hume for English, Walter D. Toy for modern languages, William B. Phillips for agricultural chemistry and mining and James Lee Love for mathematics. A faculty circular then announced postgraduate courses toward the A.M., Ph.M. and Ph.D., free of tuition to graduates of any college. People: Thomas Hume, James Lee Love, William Battle Phillips Place: Chapel Hill · Also named: Walter D. ToySearch the index · Documenting the American South: Kemp P. Battle, History of the University of North Carolina, vol. II (1912), p. 333
9. summer 1888 The university lets go its new professors of mining, teaching and biology With the land-grant income moved to the new A. and M. College, the trustees could not pay the chairs added in 1885. William B. Phillips (mining and metallurgy), Nelson B. Henry (pedagogy) and George F. Atkinson (biology) left in the summer of 1888, and Love, assistant professor of mathematics, was kept one more year. People: William Battle Phillips, George Francis Atkinson, James Lee Love Place: UNC, Chapel Hill · Also named: Nelson B. HenrySearch the index · James Lee Love, Recollections (1920-1921), scan p. 247

After their death in 1918

Later events: estates and burials, and the buildings, honors and histories that remember them.

1. 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: James Phillips, Charles Phillips, William Battle Phillips Place: Chapel Hill, Phillips HallSearch the index · Carolina Story: Virtual Museum of University History: James Phillips, Charles Phillips, and William Battle Phillips and Phillips Hall