On the hilltop of Bristol’s most historic cemetery, appropriately named East Hill Cemetery, sits a bench that doubles as a tombstone: Victor Nicholas (Bud) Phillips, Aug, 25, 1929 to Jan. 9, 2017.
“Friend rest here a while and look to the west and view the city which I chose for my home in 1953 and found it to be truly ‘a good place to live,’” the bench reads. Phillip’s words echo, providing visitors with a place to sit and marvel at the Bristol sign and view of downtown State Street.
For the uninitiated, Bristol hosts a semi-famous lighted sign that pronounces our claim to fame: “Bristol: a Good Place to Live.”
The spirit of “Bud” Phillips, known for his in-depth books about the history, people, and livelihood of Bristol, lives on in the curiosity of residents who still wonder about how Bristol came to be.
“It’s really hard to keep a lot of this history alive because it dies with the people,” junior Wyatt Parker, a local history enthusiast, said.
But the work of Phillips, and readers like Parker, enable that history to live on. Phillips published eight books on Bristol history, with titles ranging from Ghosts of Bristol to Pioneers in Paradise, which detail every life and story of each passing Bristolian with precise detail.
“He had a lot of information and he kept the [Bristol] Historic Association going, especially with this area passing down history by word of mouth and not written down,” Parker said.
Deemed ‘Official Historian of Bristol,’ in 2006, Phillips received an entire day dedicated to him which was coined ‘Bud Phillips Day,’ first celebrated in May 2004. This achievement solidified his settlement in Bristol and made him officially recognized amongst the residents.
“Bud was quite the character, but he kept to himself,” said John Hawthorne, East Hill Cemetery protector. “He lived in a beautiful home which was built around the time of the Civil War, and his home was a museum, but it was just items he picked up from relatives and relics that he had been able to collect over the years.”
Originally from Arkansas, Phillips later moved to Bristol, Virginia to earn a living from the developing town and completely fell in love with the twin city. When he experienced the Bristolian’s welcoming nature towards a “stranger” like himself, he truly believed this town was special.
“He came here to Bristol and this actually wasn’t where he wanted to go,” Hawthorne said. “He was just looking for a good job and he just fell in love with Bristol.”
Phillips discovered upon arriving in Bristol how rich its history was and actively unraveled the secrets and stories from the older generation. Not only did he want to preserve Bristol’s past but also the future, as he meticulously documented every aspect of life.
“He found a job as a public service worker working with the community, specifically elderly people who needed government assistance,” Hawthorne said. “When dealing with the older generation, he naturally started picking up stories from all of them about the history of Bristol and what they experienced in their lifetime and stuff like that.”
Since the majority of Bristol’s past was passed down by word of mouth, Phillips made it his goal to write these events down and even treasure them with detailed memorization.
“The one thing that always impressed me about Bud, and we spent a lot of time up in East Hill cemetery which I still do,” Hawthorne said. “After becoming the Official Historian, his mind, even in his very last years, recalled stuff like bang bang bang on the top of his head; who married who? Who was alive? [And] he knew who their family was.”
As Hawthorne stated, Phillips’ focus on Bristol’s History led him into developing a remarkable bond with The East Hill Cemetery in which he memorized the lives of each and every grave he saw.
“People don’t realize East Hill is the history of Bristol, and if you know the stones, know the family that [it] is involved with, you know…Bristol’s early history,” Hawthorne said. “I think that’s why [Bud] was so passionate and he spent a lot of time up there.”
While Phillips knew the ins and outs of the cemetery, he also spent a significant amount of time restoring and preserving its livelihood. However, the exception was Silas Goodson, a former slave of Bristolian James King, who was originally buried across town in the slave cemetery located at Rose and 7th Street.
“Goodson …had similar abilities to a prophet,” Parker said. “He had this vision of a town a long time ago before Bristol was founded and was said to have lived to the age of 130.”
Phillips often highlights Goodson’s prophecy as a type of origin-story in his books. According to him, Bristol’s founder, Joseph R. Anderson, who bought the land from James King, asked Goodson what he envisioned, later forming what is now the majority of the downtown area.
“When Anderson went to set up the town and build out these tracts of land and survey it, he went to Goodson,” Parker said. “He laid out exactly what he envisioned, so that’s where State Street and a lot of that downtown area comes from,” Parker said.
Most current residents are unaware of stories like this, or the fact Shelby Street is named after the settler of Bristol, Evan Shelby. That is the reason Phillips diligently recorded the memories of the past and why he was so passionate about sealing historic sites as well.
“I feel like that’s one of the better things we do as a city is take care of East Hill and some of the surrounding landmarks,” Parker said.
Phillips passed away in 2017 at the age of 87, but has left an everlasting mark on the heart of Bristol. From his books to his community work, his contributions have had major effects on how Bristol is perceived today.
“He did a lot of really good work for the city even now with him not being around,” Parker said.
Along with other drawbacks of East Hill Cemetery being open to the public, occurrences of vandalism are rising. The overseers of the sight strain with the upkeep, Bristol’s physical history is slowly withering away
“I think it’s [vandalism] disrespectful, it doesn’t matter what they were like, there’s a lot of dedicated people there that take care of it so that’s good,” Parker said, “I feel like that’s one of the better things we do as a city is take care of East Hill and some of the surrounding landmarks.”
Continuing into the future, East Hill has always been one of the city’s signs of independence and communion. With additional support from Bristol, it can be a beautiful reminder of the city’s founding.
“Either way, we’ve done a good job with our history,” Parker said.
Janet Canter | Nov 7, 2025 at 2:53 PM
Love this article!