Abner Reeves Callaway (1832-1893)

Abner Reeves Callaway, third son of Rev. Enoch Callaway (1792-1859) and Martha Reeves Callaway (1796-1879), was born in Wilkes County, Georgia, February 6, 1832. His father was a vigorous and active Baptist minister, a man known for his high integrity, tender sympathy and executive ability. His mother, was noted for strength, decision of character, firmness of purpose and tenderness of heart. At the age of ten he was converted and was baptised in Sardis Church, Wilkes County, Georgia of which his father was pastor and by whom he was baptized. He attended school at Centerville, Wilkes County, Georgia, and later at Mercer University, then located in Penfield, Greene County, Georgia.

He married Sarah Jane Howard (1835-1878), daughter of Robert Groves Howard (1798-1855) and Mary Brooks Glenn (1810-1840) of Lexington, Oglethorpe County, Georgia on October 19, 1852. The young couple settled in west Georgia, where Mr. Callaway taught school, farmed, and for years served most churches in the Western Baptist Association, including Greeneville, Rocky Mount, Friendship, Wehadkee, Antioch, Bethlehem, Long Cane, West Point and Hogansville. About 1860, he established the "Hyperion High School," about two miles from Greenville, Meriwether County, Georgia, one of the first large boarding high schools in Western Georgia. In the winter of 1865-6, he moved his family to LaGrange, Troup County, Georgia, where he gave himself to rebuilding the fortunes of his community wasted by war. His success in farming, his popularity as pastor and preacher, were so pronounced that he soon came to be recognized as one of the foremost and most influential citizens of his city and community. By intense study and application, and by unremitting personal labor, Mr. Callaway laid the foundations of his life work broad and deep, and built thereon a character which stamped him as a man of worth, an educator and Christian minster. In 1875 he was elected Professor of natural Science and Belle-Letters in the Southern Female College at LaGrange, a position he filled with notable success for many years.

After the death of his first wife in 1878, he married in Atlanta, Fulton County, Georgia on June 24, 1879 Mary Welbourne Ely (1842-1915), daughter of Wilborn Ely (1806-1842) and Mary Newsom.

Rev. Callaway died at La Grange on September 23, 1893 and was buried at Hill View Cemetery, Troup County, Georgia.