Notes and Links

• m. Laura Caroline Battle* (1824-1919), Dec. 8, 1847.
• Children:
  • Julia Vermeule Phillips, b. Dec. 9, 1848, d. Dec. 9, 1850.
  • Charles Battle Phillips, b. Dec. 1, 1850, d. Nov. 14, 1851.
  • Mary Catherine Phillips* (1852-1938)
    • m. John Samuel Verner*(1849-1912)
  • James Phillips, b. Mar. 24, 1855,
    • m. Ruth Elizabeth Crosland, daughter of James Evander and Mary (Reynolds) Crosland, and had 5 children.
  • William Battle Phillips (1857-1918).
  • Alexander Lacy Phillips, b. Sep. 20, 1859, received his A.B. from UNC in 1880 and D.D. in 1886. He became an ordained Presbyterian Minister in 1883 and professor of Latin and Greek as well as Pastor in NC, AL, and Nashville TN (1898-1901). He served as the Secretary to the Board of the Colored Evangelization of the South from 1889 to 1898. He served on several other Boards related to Southern Presbyterian Missions and published a Geography of Palestine in 1904. He was also the author of the Manual of Graded Instruction in 1902, Call of the Home Land in 1906, and the Teacher Training Course (Vol. 1) in 1909. His final home was Richmond VA, where he died after 1909.
    • m. Susan Ida Moseley on June 4, 1883
    • Alexander and Susan had 3 children.
  • Lucy Plummer Phillips (1862-1963)
  • Susan "Susie" Rowena McKee Phillips, b. Mar. 23, 1868, d. 1891, married Dr. Robert Drane Jewett, in 1890, but she died less than a year later of a ruptured appendix.

Brief Biography:

Charles had played a role in preventing William Tecumseh Sherman from destroying the University at Chapel Hill during the final days of the Civil War by arguing that it would be the burden of the North to rebuild it after the war was over. In many respects, he was the "acting" president of UNC during these difficult times. His career was interrupted during the reconstruction after the Civil War and the University was closed for 7 years in 1868-75, due to a lack of funds and the untimely accidental death of Governor Swain who had supported the University during those difficult times.

Charles then went to teach at Davidson College for 7 years, during which time Woodrow Wilson (later to become U.S. President, 1913-1921) was one of his students. In 1876 he returned to Chapel Hill, lived in former Governor Swain's house, and taught until he died in 1889. He was once considered for the Presidency of the University, but was not chosen over his cousin, Kemp Plummer Battle, his wife's nephew. He had visited his brother, Samuel Field Phillips, Attorney General of the U.S. under President Grant, in Washington DC in 1877, apparently using his influence to help the University.

In his later years, Charles suffered from gout, complicated by obesity and became immobilized. He died in Columbia SC after being bedridden for 10 days following a trip to see his daughter, Mary Catherine (Phillips) Verner*, and intending to visit later with his sons in Alabama. He was buried in Chapel Hill. There is much information about him in Old Days in Chapel Hill by Hope Summerell Chamberlain.

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