Phillips, Charles, 1822-1889

Charles Phillips (1822-1889) was the son of James and Julia Vermeule Phillips of Chapel Hill, N.C. He was a graduate of the University of North Carolina, 1841; a tutor, 1844-1854; professor of mathematics, 1854-1868 and 1875-1879; and professor emeritus, 1879-1889. He taught at Davidson College, 1868-1874.

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, Mass., with her daughter and son-in-law.

Laura Caroline Battle Phillips (1824-1919) was born at the Falls of the Tar River, now Rocky Mount. She was the youngest child of Joel Battle and his wife Mary Pretty Polly Johnston Battle. From 1839 to 1841, she attended a boarding school in Bordentown, N.J., conducted by Lucien Murat (son of Joachim Murat and Caroline Bonaparte) with the assistance of his wife, the former Caroline Fraser of Charleston, S.C., and her sisters Eliza, Jane, and Harriet. After Laura left the school, she corresponded with Caroline Murat and Jane Fraser until 1861. Laura Battle was married to Professor Charles Phillips on 8 December 1847 at the Battle home in Chapel Hill. Their children included sons William and Alexander and daughters Mary and Lucy. After Phillips's death in 1889, Laura went to live near her son William B. Phillips in Birmingham, Ala.

Lucy Plummer Phillips Russell (1862-1962) was the daughter of Charles and Laura Battle Phillips. As a school teacher in Rockingham, N.C., she met Moses H. Russell, a Rockingham merchant, and they were married in 1883. Their children included son Charles Phillips Russell and daughter Susan Russell Crosland.

Charles Phillips Russell (b. 1884) graduated from the University of North Carolina in 1904. He was a journalist in New York and London throughout the 1920s, an author, and a professor of English and journalism at University of North Carolina after 1931.

From the guide to the Charles Phillips Papers, ., 1807-1968, (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Library. Southern Historical Collection.)