Phillips was born on May 3, 1873, in
Jefferson, Texas, to Edward—a Confederate veteran in the
American Civil War— andJennie L. Phillips (
née Arrington). The family moved to Hillsboro, Texas, where Phillips "attended local schools until the age of fifteen" before spending two years at
Bingham Military School in
Mebane, North Carolina. Employed at his father's bank, he
read law nightly in the office of
Thomas S. Smith in 1893, stopping in 1894 when he was
admitted to the bar. In 1904, Governor
S. W. T. Lanham gave Phillips a two-year appointment to a seat on the Eighteenth Judicial District of Texas. After its expiration, Phillips moved to Dallas to practice law. He married Susie McFadden on October 1, 1896, having one child together. He was interred at the
Sparkman-Hillcrest Memorial Park Cemetery. ==References==