• Date of Birth: October 28, 1842
  • Born City: Richmond
  • Born State/Country: VA
  • Parents: James Barnett & May Williams T.
  • Date of Death: November 05, 1915
  • Death City: Wake Forest
  • Death State/Country: NC
  • Married: Mary Hinton Pritchard, 11 Sept. 1873.
  • Education:

    Study at Richmond Coll., 1858-61; B. Litt. U. Virginia, 1870; ordained Bapt. min., 1871; D.D. Richmond Coll., 1884; LL.D. U. North Carolina, 1889; Mercer U., 1889.

  • Professional Experience:

    Prof. Lat. & Germ. Wake Forest, 1870-83; prof. Lat. & moral philos., 1883-4; pres. & prof, moral philos., 1884-1905; prof, moral philos., 1905-15.

  • Publications:

    Opportunity Makes Duty (Wake Forest, NC, 1890); "Gilbert Stone, the Millionaire" (poem) (Wake Forest, 1891); How Far Should a State Undertake to Educate? (Raleigh, 1894); The Story of Yates, the Missionary, As Told In His Letters and Reminiscences (Nashville, 1898); A Familiar Talk with Young Men and a Symposium (Raleigh, n.d.); The Signal and Secret Service of the Confederate States (Hamlet, NC, 1903).

  • Notes:

    Charles Taylor, a Baptist minister and professor of Latin and German, interrupted his student career at Richmond College to fight in the Civil War. He resumed his study at the University of Virginia under Gildersleeve, where he is said to have been one of a group of students who read together through the entire corpus of Plato's dialogues.At Wake Forest his reputation for accuracy and thoroughness in teaching Latin grammar was legendary, and his students called him "Old Aorist"; his favorite author was Juvenal. Though ultimately named professor of moral philosophy, he maintained his interest in Latin and in the Latin curriculum of the college throughout his life.During his presidency, Wake Forest College increased its endowment and its support from the Baptists of North Carolina; its physical plant was improved, and its student body and faculty more than doubled, to 328 students and 17 professors with seven assistants. The number of departments of study increased and the elective system was introduced in 1887 following Eliot's example at Harvard. Schools of Law and Medicine were established in 1894 and 1902.

  • Sources:

    J. B. Carlyle, Biographical History of North Carolina 1:458-64; Garland A. Hendricks, Encyclopedia of Southern Baptists 2:1346; NatCAB 24:58-9; G. W. Paschal, History of Wake Forest College (Wake Forest, 1943) 2:225-356; Gary E. Trawick, 700 Years, 100 Men, 1871-1971 (Raleigh, 1971), 366-9; The Wake Forest Student (Taylor Memorial Issue) 35 (Mar. 1916) 371-544.

  • Author: Robert W. Ulery, Jr.