Biography:

Phillips Family

Flora Phillips was born in North Carolina in December of 1834. She married John Phillips, who was born in Ireland around 1828. The couple was living in Simpson County, Mississippi, by 1870. In that year, John Phillips was a farmer with real and personal property valued at fifteen hundred dollars. The Phillipses had several children, including Jane, Mary, George, Margaret C. (b. ca. 1868), Louise C. (b. 1874), Sarintha, and another daughter known as "F. E. Stewart." John Phillips was still farming in 1880. He and his wife were living in Arch, Simpson County, in 1899. Flora Phillips was a widow by 1900.

Sarintha Phillips was born in Mississippi in March of 1877. She was living in DLo, Simpson County, in 1892. Phillips lived in Cato, Rankin County, from at least 1893 to 1895. She was living in Arch, Simpson County, in 1896. Phillips was living with her mother and sister Louise in Simpson County in 1900. She apparently operated the family farm at that time.

F. Kendall married Margaret C. Phillips on May 10, 1895. Sarintha Phillips was living with the Kendalls at their home in Simpson County in 1910. The Kendalls also lived in DLo from at least 1917 to 1919.

 

Scope and Content Note:

This collection includes correspondence, miscellaneous papers, and envelopes of Sarintha Phillips and other members of the Phillips family of Simpson County, Mississippi.

 

Series Identification:

Series 1: Correspondence. 1889-1919; n.d. 1 folder.

The majority of the letters were addressed to Sarintha Phillips in Rankin or Simpson counties in Mississippi. Adolescents and young children wrote several of the earliest letters. Much of the correspondence consists of courtship letters to Phillips from John C. Norwood of Arcola, Louisiana; Luther Lawrence of Goshen Springs, Mississippi; and Watson Williams of Westville, Mississippi. Other correspondents include Phillipss cousin, A. E. Heales, of Polkville, Mississippi, who described a camp meeting; her cousin, Lula, who mentioned an 1895 birth; and her cousin, Mary, of Westville, Mississippi. Other correspondents include John and Flora Phillips of Arch, Simpson County; Leonidas Kendall of Mendenhall, Mississippi; and Ellen Sinclair of Braxton, Mississippi.

A March 1899 letter from F. E. Stewart to her mother, Flora Phillips, discusses a yellow fever epidemic in Canton, Mississippi, and the lynching (burning) of a black man who worked on a farm owned by Mr. Boyd. There is also a September 1899 letter to "Pa and Ma" from an unknown author regarding a fever prevalent in Goshen Springs and a knife fight involving some black men.

 

Series 2: Miscellaneous Papers. 1900; n.d. 1 folder.

Miscellaneous papers include a December 31, 1900, Simpson County tax receipt of Flora Phillips; an undated poem that may be an original composition; and an undated calling card of Nannie P. Johnston.

 

Series 3: Envelopes. 1915; n.d. 1 folder.

Most of the empty envelopes were addressed to Sarintha (also Serentha) Phillips, and two envelopes were addressed to either Margaret Phillips Kendall of DLo or Frederick A. Rosebush of New York City.