BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF DR. JAMES J. PHILLIPS, DECEASED, OF EDGECOMBE COUNTY, HONORARY MEMBER OF THIS SOCIETY AT THE TIME OF HIS DEATH
By S. S. Satchwell, M.D., of Burgaw, N. C.
(Read before the Medical Society of North Carolina, at Wilmington, May 17th, 1892.)
One of the ablest and most distinguished physicians and brightest ornaments of the medical profession of our State was that celebrated country practitioner, Dr. James J. Phillips, of Edgecombe. One of the earliest honorary members of this Society, it is meet that, in collecting and preserving our jewels, we should perpetuate his memory, his high abilities and his usefulness.
Dr. Phillips was born in Edgecombe county, March 12th, 1798, and died there April 10th, 1874. His father was likewise born there and died there. His grandfather came from England, and was one of the. earliest settlers in our State. The father of our subject was a man of means at one time of his life, but failed when his son James was 18 years of age. This compelled him to stop his studies, and hence he never had the benefit of a collegiate course He entered the office, as a medical student, of Dr. Cullen Battle (father of General Battle, now of Newbern), and after studying medicine with him, took his course of medical lectures in Philadelphia. He settled in Edgecombe upon his return, and entered at once upon a large and lucrative practice, and remained there until the day of his death. His practice extended throughout Edgecombe into Nash, Wilson, Wayne, Halifax, and occasionally to remoter portions of the State.
He enjoyed public confidence to a rare degree, and his services were assiduously sought far and near, in all difficult and dangerous cases of medicine, obstetrics and surgery. He stood high with his neighboring professional brethren, who cherished for him the highest personal and professional regard, and considered themselves fortunate, at any time, in being thrown into social and professional intercourse with him, and felt themselves benefited by his consultations with them in difficult and dangerous cases. During these earlier days of his laborious practice there were scarcely any railroad facilities of travel, and he was compelled to make his professional visits in his own- conveyances. He was a large man, and, when in his prime, was fine looking. Seldom do our eyes behold a more striking personage. As I know from personal observation and experience he would command attention and notice in any crowd he entered and at any time and place.
He was a great reader and always an indefatigable worker. All his life he held to the doctrine, and acted upon the maxim, that industry and energy are essential to success, and that life gives nothing to mortals without great labor. Fond of every department of knowledge and of all the natural sciences, he was especially fond of the science of medicine, and devoted every leisure hour to its study and investigation, and kept abreast at all times with its improvements, its discoveries and its progress. He had great fondness for geology and chemistry, and in his day no one in the State was better posted in this branch He was learned, not alone in the science of medicine, but in agricultural chemistry. He was a scientific, practical and successful farmer, as so many of our best physicians are, and made money by farming as well as by the practice of his profession. He was among the earliest, if not the first, physician and farmer of the State, who advocated and demanded that farmers should study and possess themselves of a knowledge of chemistry, that it might be applied to practical agriculture. This advocacy brought about an interesting discussion in 1857 between him and Professor Elisha Mitchell of cur State University. It attracted the attention of our leading agriculturists and physicians and other scientists of that day, and Dr. Phillips, as a plain, modest, devoted country physician, gained rich laurels for scientific research and a high order of mental endowments. The views and arguments of Dr. Phillips in this controversy gave a new impetus to the cultivation of the soil on scientific principles. This discussion was brought about in consequence of an address delivered by Dr Phillips before the Edgecombe Agricultural Society in 1852. It was the first address delivered before the first Agricultural Society in North Carolina. It combined, with other causes, in establishing him as a man of original powers and bold, independent thought— able to impress himself—and he did impress himself, upon the times in which he lived. The criticisms and views consequent upon this able address and his discussion with Professor Mitchell, aroused the attention of leading citizens, especially of Edgecombe, and in practical and successful agriculture, brought Edgecombe to the front in farming. Often have I heard the Dancys, of Edgecombe, and the Hon. R. R. and J. L. Bridgers, of that county, speak in warm praise of Dr. Phillips as a pioneer man in that entire section of the State, as a leader of men and measures, both within and without the profession. As a man of high order of intellect and as a practitioner of rare judgment and skill, and a gentleman in the full sense of the term. No one knew him better and honored and loved him more than our late lamented, honored and useful member, Dr. William George Thomas, of Wilmington. He had the amplest opportunities of knowing Dr. Phillips while he (Dr. Thomas) practiced in Tarboro, and loved to dwell upon his race virtues and high character as a man, citizen and physician.
The high qualities of his head and heart, his superiority as a physician, were proverbial in his day. His loyalty to his friends, his great resolution and energy of character, his strict integrity and generous disposition, his readiness to aid poor and meritorious young men, struggling for success, his love of North Carolina and his devotion to his country, were interwoven in his nature and were leading attributes of his strong character.
He thought for himself and acted for himself, as is the custom of our ablest and best men, and he thought strongly. He possessed directness of thought, and when occasion suggested spoke forcibly and in epigrammatic style. Like most men who think much and think deep, he did not talk much; but to intimate friends who approached him on subjects with which he was familiar, he was free, communicative, very interesting and instructive. An eminent physician said to me a few years ago that, though he was deaf, and in ordinary conversation did not well understand the human voice, Dr. Phillips could diagnose a case of disease quicker by merely looking at it than any medical man he had ever met. He bad the capacity of judging correctly of men, whether he passed upon them as patients or as mere casual acquaintances in social life or public company, and this ready knowledge of human nature was of great benefit to him in the affairs of life.
He was a man of much prominence in his section of the State, and a physician of acknowledged eminence and distinction. He was a man of such high intellectual endowments, such freedom from deception and guile, such openhanded hospitality and frankness of manner, and withal so benevolent, generous and public spirited, that he was honored and esteemed by all who knew him, and when good opinion was worth deserving or seeking. These sterling traits made him hosts of friends, who loved him while living and honored him in death. Such was the make-up of this useful and noble man and physician that he would have attained prominence in any community and eminence in any calling or occupation. Had he settled in some larger city as a medical practitioner, instead of clinging, as he did, with almost idolatrous affection, to North Carolina, he would have attained to shining eminence in the ranks of the foremost practitioners of any of our cities.
He was possessed of that mild dignity of appearance and manners, and yet boldness and decision—that spirit of enthusiasm and air of originality and self-confidence, and that independence and go-aheadativeness which impress men upon the communities in which they live, and make them natural-born leaders of men. He kept pace with the standard publications of the day, and, amid the interruptions and toils of an arduous and self-denying profession, kept his taste gratified, his mind nourished and his spirit refreshed by habitual recurrence to these rich fountains of instruction and unalloyed pleasure.
Dr. Phillips was happily married to Miss Harnett A. Burt on the 23d of April, 1834. She was the daughter of Mr. William Burt, of Hilliardstown, Nash county, who moved to Tennessee in 1840, and soon after died.
Fourteen children were the fruits of Dr. Phillips' marriage. Of these four died in infancy: Sallie T., the wife of that brave Confederate Colonel. F. M. Parker, still living in Halifax county, in this State; the Hon. Fred. Phillips, a leading citizen of Tarboro, who for a number of years adorned the bench as a Superior Court Judge of this State; Susan Sims, who intermarried with Mr. J. J. Battle, of Edgecombe county, and died in 1886; James J., who was killed in the last cavalry charge in Virginia, not having heard of the surrender, and who was only 19 years of age; Joseph B, of Nash county, a Representative of that county in the Legislature for the last two sessions; John W., living in Edgecombe county; Harriet A., who intermarried with Hon. B. H. Bunn, member of Congress from the metropolitan district, and a citizen of Nash county; Laura Maud, the wife of John H. Arrington, Esq., of Nash county, and son of the late Hon. A. H. Arrington, former member of Congress from this State; Lizzie P. intermarried with G. G. Battle, who died in April, 1891, now living in Edgecombe county; Walter E., at present a student at Cambridge, Massachusetts, but his home is in North Carolina.
Source: North Carolina Medical Journal, Volumes XXIX and XXX, printed by Jackson & Bell, Steam-Power Printers, 1892; Pgs. 350-354
