Born: Au­gust 13, 1834, Chau­tau­qua Coun­ty, New York.

Died: June 25, 1895, Del­a­ware, Ohio.

Buried: For­est Hill Cem­e­te­ry, Fre­don­ia, New York.

Known as “The Sing­ing Pilg­rim,” Phill­ips be­gan teach­ing sing­ing school at age 19. In 1860, he formed a part­ner­ship in Cin­cin­nati, Ohio, with Wm. Sum­ner & Co., un­der the firm name of Phill­ip Phill­ips & Co., to sell pian­os, or­gans, and Sun­day school song­books. Phillips fre­quent­ly in­tro­duced him­self in a town by put­ting a mel­o­de­on in a ve­hicle, park­ing on a prom­i­nent street cor­ner, and be­gin to sing and play. His mar­vel­ous voice drew large crowds.

In 1875, Phill­ips went on a tour of Aus­tral­ia, con­duct­ing over one hun­dred song ser­vic­es. He re­turned to New York two years lat­er, by way of Sri Lan­ka, In­dia, Ja­pan, Jeru­sa­lem, Egypt, It­a­ly, Eur­ope, and Eng­land. He wrote Round the World with De­scrip­tive Songs about the ex­per­i­ence.

Phillips’ other books in­clude:

Sources

Music

  1. Blind Bartimeus
  2. Home of the Soul
  3. Lord Will Provide, The
  4. Nearer My Home
  5. Oh, What Are You Going to Do?
  6. Our Country
  7. Stand Like the Brave