State

promptly dispersed by the twelve sol¬ diers. and that now they had the whole police force of the city at bay. Without waiting for a reply to that letter Mr. Voider wrote them again the next day that, since his former letter, the Governor of the state had ordered out the National Guard to rescue the city police force; that two companies of Guardsmen charged the soldiers, but the soldiers had taken up entrench¬ ments in the neighbors basement and had easily dispersed the two com¬ panies; that the Governor had come down and was trying to negotiate peace, but since the Russians could not understand English his attempts had amounted to nothing. Resides all that, he said, the soldiers were eating his neighbor's food and drinking all his pre-war stock which they found in his basement. Within a few days he received a let¬ ter from the President of the Claus Manufacturing Company saying the matter had been referred to him. but that he had found upon investigation that his Complaint Manager was right in his first position, in that the son had not specified toy soldiers. They again wished to do all they could, however, and were sending him by airmail a copy of a Russian-English dictionary, with the aid of which he would be able to order the soldiers in Russian to cease firing. He pointed out that Mr. Voider would have the right to give these or¬ ders since as a matter of martial law he — Mr. Voider — was in supreme command of the soldiers until his son reached the age of 21. lie should, the letter said, have no trouble in address¬ ing them in their native tongue, and he was certain that they would obey orders as they were the highest quality of Rus¬ sian soldiers. The final letter from Mr. Voider to the Claus Company was written on his way to the stale prison. He said that upon receipt of their dictionary he had used it and ordered the soldiers to cease firing and furthermore to lay down their arms. He said they must have misunderstood him. for they im¬ mediately charged upon the militia, put them utterly to rout and followed in pursuit. The Russians then disappeared and had not been heard from since. That he had been arrested for inciting to riot and was then on his way to serve his term. He was still insisting that his son wanted only toy soldiers. Immortal Math Prof J.iiihvs Phillips was tlie first of a line of Tar Heels who have made distinguish oil с* о n t r i h u - lions at U14TC and else¬ where. By JOE JO*ES James Phillips, an Englishman who taught mathematics at the University of North Carolina from 1826 to 1867. is the ancestor of several North Caro¬ linians who have made distinguished contributions to the life of their state. His daughter. Cornelia Phillips Spencer, was a practical-minded writer and speaker whose efforts by tongue and pen. together with her influence among governmental leaders, brought about the 1875 reopening of the Uni¬ versity after it had been closed during the Reconstruction era. Spencer Hall, the first women's dormitory at Chapel Hill, is named for her. and so is a building at UNC in Greensboro. His son Charles studied theology at Princeton and was a Presbyterian preacher and UNC mathematics pro¬ fessor until shortly before his death in 1889. His other son. Samuel, entered UNC at 13. was graduated at 17. be¬ came a lawyer, and was speaker of the North Carolina House of Commons, auditor in Gov. Zeb Vance’s Civil War cabinet, and United States solicitor- general under President Grant. Phillips Russell of Chapel Hill, na¬ tionally known author, is Charles Phillips' grandson. Mrs. Spencer's grandchildren include Miss Cornelia Love. Chapel Hill philanthropist, and the late J. Spencer Love of Greensboro, who was prominent in financial circles as chairman of Burlington Industries. James Phillips was bom in 1792 in Nevenden. Essex. England, where his father was rector of the village church. After his mother's death and his father's remarriage he broke with his father and they never saw each other again. In 1818 he and his brother Samuel left England for America. James established a boys* school in James Phillip* Harlem (before it was part of New York City) and conducted it for several years. He left New York for Chapel Hill in 1826 after a fellow member of a mathematical club had urged him to apply for the then-vacant chair of mathematics and philosophy at the University of North Carolina. Mean¬ while. he had married Judith Vcr- mcule, younger sister of another mem¬ ber of the club who was a Rutgers faculty member. Thus did membership in a math club chart the course of his life. Phillips Russell, in writing about this stage of his great-grandfather's career, says: "James Phillips was then 34 years old. broadly built and deep chested but with a scholar's refined face. His eyes were kindly and humorous, but the chin that rested deep between the points of his flaring stock collar was square and inflexible. Judith Vermeulc Phillips was three years younger, tall and sprightly, with dark ringlets fram¬ ing an oval face and moody eyes. James came to Chapel Hill with the resolute air of a man who had made up his (Continued on page 28) THE STATE. DECEMBER 15. 1969