Hugh B. Phillips was born April of 1846 in Cannon County, Tennessee to David H. Phillips and Mary Margaret Bralley. He served in the Confederate 5th Regiment Cavalry of the 1st Middle Tennessee Army.

August 6, 1867, Hugh married Mary L. E. Prater, born 1844 to Kessiah Prater and most likely Nathan Woods, who Kessiah married when Mary was a baby and who raised her as his daughter. Hugh and Mary's daughter, Francis Mariah 'Fannie' (Phillips) McCoy told her children that her mother's maiden name was Woods. Mary and a daughter Louisa E. died in the early 1870's.

Hugh married June 10, 1875, Mary Belle Fowler, daughter of Jacob B. Fowler and Martha Virginia Elkins. In 1879, Hugh and Belle came to Christian County, Missouri homesteading 120 acres along current Highway PP a mile south of Sparta. Belle died at or sometime after the 1883 birth of William Marion Phillips.

Hugh married 25 August 1886 Mrs. Malinda 'Mindy' A. Mallett. In 1894, unable to make the payment on a five-year 250.00 mortgage, Hugh lost the Christian County farm and moved with the youngest seven children to Western Grove, Arkansas.

There, he married April 20, 1896 his fourth and final wife Arminda 'Mindy', daughter of James Robinson and Sarah Shratt, and widow of James Martin.

Hugh B. Phillips is buried Western Grove Cemetery.

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