Rev. Morgan Callaway, D. D.

Rev. Morgan Callaway, D. D., vice—president and professor of English, Emory College, Oxford, Georgia, son of Jesse and Mary (Wootten) Callaway, was born in Wilkes County, Georgia, in 1831.

His paternal grandparents, Joseph and Mary (Morgan) Callaway, were native Virginians, who migrated to Georgia about 1790 and settled in Wilkes County. He was a soldier in the patriot army during the Revolutionary War.

Prof. Callaway's father was born in Wilkes County, was a planter, a volunteer soldier in the last war with Great Britain, and held the rank of Sergeant.

Prof. Callaway received a good primary and preparatory education at the academy, Washington, Wilkes County, and then entered the University of Georgia, from which he was graduated in 1849. After his graduation he attended the celebrated Gould Law School, Augusta, was admitted to the bar, and entered upon the practice, also supervised his farming interests. Abandoning the practice of law, he accepted a professorship in Andrew Female College, Cuthbert, Randolph County, Georgia, where he remained until 1862.

That year he enlisted in Company B, Butts Battalion of Artillery, but later was transferred to Capt. Reed's Battery, with which he remained until the end. He was a participant in very many of the important battles of the war, and was shot down twice, first at Gordonville and again at Cold Harbor. He entered the service as a private, but became first lieutenant of the first battery, and then captain of the second, and was present when Gen. Lee surrendered at Appomattox.

Since the war his time has been wholly occupied in preaching and teaching. His first pastoral work was at Washington, Georgia, his old home, where he was stationed four years, and after that he was for two years president of the female college at La Grange, Georgia. In 1870 he was elected professor of Latin in Emory College, and has been connected with that institution ever since, with the exception of two years given to the Paine Institute, Augusta, Georgia, the honor and credit for the organization of which justly belong to him. He held the Latin professorship only for four years, since which he has taught English, and is now, in addition, vice—president of the college.

In 1865 he was elected a delegate to the constitutional convention, in which he took an absorbing interest, and was one of the most useful and influential of its members.

His has been a life of unceasing activity and well-directed usefulness, the luster of whose record is undimmed by a shadow, and whose motives have no taint of selfishness. He ranks among the most prominent ministers of the denomination he honors, and was given the degree of D. D. by Emory College.

Prof. Callaway has been twice married. He was first married in 1850, to Miss Eliza, daughter of Fielding and Mary (Wootten) Hinton. Seven children were born to them, only two survive: Maude lived to become the wife of the Rev. James M. Lovett; and Morgan, having won the doctorate of philosophy at Johns Hopkins University, is now professor of English in the University of Texas. The mother, a very pious and exemplary member of the Methodist church, died in 1867.

In 1868 he contracted a second marriage with Miss Georgia, daughter of Dr. Fielding and Frances (Wingfield) Ficklen, by whom he has had one child, who, however, is dead. Mrs. Callaway has for years been the corresponding secretary of the Woman's Missionary society of the North Georgia conference. Dr. Callaway is the author of several works: Our Mother Tongue, Woman and Art, and various sermons and magazine articles.

Source: Memoirs of Georgia, Containing historical accounts of the states civil, military, industrial and professional interests and personal sketches of many of it’s people, Volume II, The Southern Historical Association, Atlanta, Georgia, 1895.

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