Information
Sheet
R Phillips family.
169 Papers,
1863-1935.
One folder, photocopies.
These are miscellaneous personal papers
of the Phillips family of New Madrid County, Missouri. Included are the inventory and sales records
of the estate of Shapley R. Phillips, 1863, and a letter from Robert E. Lee
concerning the attendance of Murray Phillips at Washington College in
Lexington, Virginia, 1869.
The Phillips family was prominent in
southeastern Missouri during the nineteenth century. The members represented in this collection were noted in
Goodspeed’s history of the region.
Shapley R. Phillips (1802-1863) was a native of Louisville, Kentucky,
who came to Missouri as a young man.
Devoting himself to agriculture, he became one of the wealthiest men in
the area, at one time owning nearly 10,000 acres of land and three hundred
slaves. Shapley’s brother, Amos R.
Phillips, was also a prominent resident of New Madrid County. Amos represented the county in the Missouri
state legislature at the time of his death in 1873. Murray Phillips, the youngest son of Shapley, was born in New
Madrid County in 1847. He attended
Christian Brothers College in St. Louis, Missouri, and then matriculated at
Washington College in Lexington, Virginia.
He assumed control of his father’s estate in 1869, and later took
charge of those of his brother and uncle.
Combined the estates included approximately 15,000 acres of excellent
farmland.
There is also an unsigned letter to J. V.
Conran asking for assistance with a land dispute, 1935.
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