Phillips, William Marshall, St. Landry Parish, Louisiana
Submitted by Mike Miller

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William Marshall Phillips is a Shreveport attorney.  His maternal grandfather 
was one of the early members of the bar of that city.  Mr. Phillips at the 
age of thirty has achieved a definite position of success in his profession, 
has a record of service as an officer of the World war, and is connected with 
some of the state's old and honored families.

He was born at Opelousas, Louisiana, in 1894, son of Henry A. and Eula (Eiland) 
Phillips.  His grandfather, Ambrose Phillips, moved from Alabama to Louisiana 
about 1850, settling in Claiborne Parish, among quite a colony of other 
Alabamans.  He was founder of the Spring Lake plantation, about eight miles 
south of Homer.  The beautiful Phillips home he built there was only recently 
destroyed by fire.  Later Ambrose Phillips moved with his family to Opelousas, 
into South Louisiana.  Henry A. Phillips was born in Alabama, and was a small 
child when his parents came to Louisiana.  He still lives at Opelousas.  Eula 
Eiland, mother of the Shreveport attorney, was born in Tuskegee, Alabama.  Her 
father, Colonel Allen Eiland, served with the rank of colonel in the Mexican 
war. 

After that war he became one of the earliest members of the bar at Shreveport, 
and continued a prominent and conspicuous figure in the life of that city 
until his death.

William Marshall Phillips spent seven years in the Louisiana State University, 
taking from that institution the three degrees, B. A., M. A. and LL. B.  He 
received his law degree in 1916, and for a few months practiced at Shreveport.  
Then, in the spring of 1917, he volunteered, entered the training camp at 
Leon Springs, Texas, and was Commissioned a lieutenant there.  He went 
overseas with the Thirty-fourth Division, and was on duty at the front in one 
of the chief campaigns in with the American forces were engaged, the Argonne 
offensive. He was gassed while in action in October 1918, and after his return 
home received his honorable discharge in the spring of 1919.  For the past 
five years Mr. Phillips has been engaged in general practice at Shreveport, 
and has been retained as special counsel for the state in a number of 
important cases.

He married Miss Mai Rives, of Shreveport, daughter of Claude G. and Mary 
Lane (Williamson) Rives, and a granddaughter of Gen. T. T. Williamson, a 
renowned soldier of the Confederacy.  Her father has had a long and prominent 
career as a public official both of the city and parish.  Mr. and Mrs. 
Phillips have one child, Jane. Mr. Phillips is a member of W. H. Booth Lodge 
No. 380, F. and A. M., and is a thirty-second degree Scottish Rite Mason and 
member of El Karubah Temple, A. A. 0. N. M. S.  He is also a member of the 
Kappa Alpha order and the Shreveport and Louisiana State and American Bar 
associations.

A History of Louisiana, (vol. 2), p. 156, by Henry E. Chambers.  
Published by The American Historical Society, Inc., Chicago and New York, 1925.