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Elizabeth MIDDAGH 1765-1847 |
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Cornelius VERMEULE, Jr. 1757-1824 |
Susannah MEADE (?) ___?-1794 |
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Richard POSTLETHWAITE c1759-1819 |
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Judith Middagh VERMEULE 1795-1881 |
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James PHILLIPS 1792-1867 |
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Cornelia Ann PHILLIPS 1825-1908 |
See Photos of Cornelia, her husband and family
Cornelia was the subject of a book, entitled: The Woman Who Rang the Bell by her great-nephew, Charles Phillips Russell (known as Phillips Russell). This book, published in 1949, long after Cornelia had passed away, describes Cornelia's extensive involvement within the social and cultural atmosphere of Chapel Hill, NC, and the University of North Carolina in its early days. Cornelia was the women who rang the bell to reconvene the University after the Civil War.
According to the web page: Southern Women and Their Families in the 19th Century:
"Cornelia Phillips (1825-1908), daughter of James and Julia Vermeule Phillips, married James Munroe Spencer in 1855 and went with him to Alabama. At his death in 1861, she and her daughter, Julia James "June" Spencer, came back to Chapel Hill. In the years following the Civil War, Cornelia P. Spencer was instrumental in rallying public support for the University of North Carolina, particularly after its second closing in 1870. During her last years, she lived in Cambridge, Massachusetts, with her daughter and son-in-law."