PHILLIPS, Daniel C. (c. 1813-1882) and (first wife) Amanda (c. 1812-1859) and (second wife) Mary (c. 1843-1884)

A lay preacher from Vermont, Daniel Phillips participated in the Millerite movement in the 1840s, along with his first wife, Amanda. Daniel Phillips’ decision to join the Sabbatarian Adventists, and probably that of his wife also, was made at meetings that James and Ellen White held in Bethel, Vermont, in 1851. Numerous reports in the Review during the 1850s chronicle Phillips’ preaching engagements in Vermont and beyond.1EGWLM 877.2

Ellen White's testimonies to Daniel Phillips initially encouraged him to expand his evangelistic exploits. By the end of the 1850s, however, she was shown that his performance among the churches did not justify a full-time traveling ministry funded by church members, and he was counseled to continue as a self-supporting lay preacher. After the death of Amanda in 1859, Daniel Phillips appears to have gone through a period of spiritual crisis, as attested by Ellen White's letters of 1862-1864 concerning his sharp business dealings with church members and an unwise romantic entanglement. He spent his final years in Wellsville, New York. His second wife, Mary Oviatt, was an enthusiastic lay worker and for several years served as secretary-treasurer of the Pennsylvania Tract and Missionary Society. Her brother, D. B. Oviatt, later served as president of the Pennsylvania Conference.1EGWLM 877.3

See: Obituary: “D. C. Phillips,” Review, July 11, 1882, p. 446; obituary: “Amanda Phillips,” Review, Mar. 24, 1859, p. 143; obituary: “Mrs. D. C. Phillips,” Review, Feb. 3, 1885, p. 78; “Death of Mrs. D. C. Phillips (Mary Oviatt Phillips),” Wellsville Daily Reporter, Jan. 2, 1885, www.alleganycountynylocalhistory.com/Obituaries/obitflders/Phillips-Mary Oviatt.htm (Oct. 20, 2011); search terms “D. C. Phillips” and “Mrs. D. C. Phillips” in Review and Herald online collection, www.adventistarchives.org; “Mrs. D. C. Phillips,” Seventh-day Adventist Year Book (Battle Creek, Mich.: Seventh-day Adventist Pub. Assn., 1883), p. 15; SDAE, s.v. “Pennsylvania Conference”; Ellen G. White, Spiritual Gifts, [vol. 2], p. 147; Lt 15, 1857 (c. 1857); Lt 2, 1862 (Jan. 20); Lt 4, 1864 (Jan. 12, 1864).1EGWLM 877.4