Charles Elisha Taylor Papers
Charles Elisha Taylor was a Baptist minister, Confederate States Army veteran, college professor, and Wake Forest College's sixth president (1884-1905). This collection documents the life and some of the work of Charles Elisha Taylor, and provides glimpses of the lives of some Taylor family members. Material types include account books, articles, circular letters, correspondence, forms, memorandums, military records, news clippings, notebooks, notes, obituaries, photographs, poems, programs, promissory notes, reports, sermons, speeches, and writings.
Biographical and Historical Note
Charles Elisha Taylor was a Baptist minister, Confederate States Army veteran, college professor, and Wake Forest College's sixth president (1884-1905). He was born in Richmond, Virginia, to James Barnett Taylor and Mary Williams Taylor, on October 28, 1842. His father, who was born in England, was the first corresponding secretary of the Southern Baptist Convention's Foreign Mission Board. There were six Taylor siblings: Charles had two brothers George and James, and three sisters Jane, Fannie, and Mary.
At age fifteen, Taylor entered Richmond College (now University of Richmond) but left to join the Confederate States Army on May 23, 1861, the day that Virginia passed its Ordinance of Secession. He served with the Tenth Virginia and with the Signal and Secret Service Bureau in Richmond. After the Civil War, Taylor entered the University of Virginia at Charlottesville and graduated with a B.Litt. (1870). Upon graduation, he accepted the position of professor of Latin and German at Wake Forest College (1870-1883) and later became a professor of Latin and moral philosophy (1883-1884) there.
Taylor was ordained in 1871 by Washington Manly Wingate, president of Wake Forest College, assisted by Taylor's father. In 1884, the College Board of Trustees met in Raleigh and elected Taylor to the presidency. Taylor's primary contribution to the College during his tenure was a movement to increase its endowment. The endowment increased about three-fold during Taylor's administration. He also introduced the electives course system (1887), added many departments, academic buildings, and increased faculty count and student enrollment.
Taylor and Mary Hinton Prichard (Mary H. P. Taylor) were married in 1873 and together they had one son and six daughters: Charles Elisha Taylor, Jr., Mary Prichard Taylor, Ethel Taylor Crittenden, Fanny Taylor Gorrell, Janie Taylor Duke, Agnes Taylor Hawkins, and Edith Taylor Earnshaw. Taylor died on November 5, 1915, and was buried in the Wake Forest College cemetery.
Sources: Woodard, John. "Taylor, Charles Elisha." Dictionary of North Carolina Biography. 1996. Available at https://www.ncpedia.org/biography/taylor-charles-elisha
Collection Overview
This collection documents the life and some of the work of Charles Elisha Taylor, and glimpses of the lives of some Taylor family members. Materials document his college years at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, service in the Confederate States Army (CSA) as a soldier and Signal and Secret Service officer, sermons at Baptist churches and organizations, and nearly four decades of work as a professor and president at Wake Forest College.
Material types include account books, articles, circular letters, correspondence, forms, memorandums, military records, news clippings, notebooks, notes, obituaries, photographs, poems, programs, promissory notes, reports, sermons, speeches, and writings. Correspondence files that are solely made up of letters by Charles Taylor are described as "outgoing"; other folders likely contain a mix of incoming and outgoing letters. Sermons and related materials appear to be from 1880s-1900s though they are undated. Though arranged by Biblical text, sermons may include references to several scriptures.
Charles Elisha Taylor's name is shortened to Taylor in the collection inventory; the other Taylor family members appear with their full name in the inventory.
Collection Arrangement
This collection is arranged into nine series: Series 1. Biographical and family materials, Series 2. Civil War materials, Series 3. Correspondence, Series 4. Correspondence, family, Series 5. Financial and legal materials, Series 6. Sermons and sermon notes, Series 7. Sermons by subject and related materials, Series 8. Wake Forest College materials, and Series 9. Writings. Within each series, files are arranged alphabetically.
Administrative Information
- Publication Information
- Processed by Caroline Fahringer, Stephanie Bennett, and Finley Turner, 2020
- Conditions Governing Access
- Collection is open for use.
- Conditions Governing Use
- The nature of the WFU Z. Smith Reynolds Library Special Collections and Archives means that copyright or other information about restrictions may be difficult or even impossible to determine despite reasonable efforts. The Archives and Special Collections of ZSR Library claims only physical ownership of most materials. The materials from our collections are made available for use in research, teaching, and private study, pursuant to the U.S. Copyright Law. The user must assume full responsibility for any use of the materials, including but not limited to, infringement of copyright and publication rights of reproduced materials. Any materials used for academic research or otherwise should be fully credited with the source.
- Preferred Citation
- Charles Elisha Taylor Papers (MS111), Z. Smith Reynolds Library Special Collections and Archives, Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem, NC, USA.