Papers, 1790-1924 and 1983, of this family of Greenville County, S.C.; chiefly Civil War letters written from lowcountry South Carolina by William Erwin Phillips, a soldier in the 16th Regiment, South Carolina Infantry, including detailed descriptions of 1862 reorganization and regimental politics. Correspondence, land, legal, and military papers, church records, promissory notes, receipts, sermons, school papers, newspaper clippings, recipes, and genealogical materials, document the lives and activities of three generations of these two families of Greenville County, S.C. Also includes scattered references to activities of Reedy River Baptist Church in Greenville County, 1894-1913; and early land papers from Greenville County, S.C., ca. 1790s-1820s. The earliest items in the collection consist of papers detailing the purchase of lands in Paris Mountain Township (Greenville County, S.C.) by Stephen Phillips (ca. 1773-1849) between 1804 and 1837. This land along with "Hillhaven," the Phillips family home, was inherited by his son Oliver Perry Phillips (1818-1866). In 1840, the Phillips and Hudson families were united when the younger Phillips married Elizabeth Ann Hudson (b. 1818). The bulk of this collection centers on the life of Oliver and Elizabeth's oldest son, William Erwin Phillips (1841-1862). An autobiography written by W.E. Phillips, dated 9 Jan. 1860, recounts his early educational activities which began when he was a four year old child. By 1857, he had progressed far enough in his studies to be admitted to Furman University at age sixteen, and was graduated from that institution in 1861. Papers documenting his time at Furman include certificates of attainment, receipts for tuition and board, and a list of his expenses for tuition, board, books, clothing, and "Lights and such like."
