Nelson Phillips

Nelson Phillips (May 3, 1873 – March 31, 1939) was an American lawyer and judge who served as justice of the Texas Supreme Court from April 1912 to November 1921, serving as chief justice from June 1915 to November 1921.

Biography 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.