Granville-Durham-Wake County NcArchives Biographies.....Smith, Charles Lee 
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Rosie H. Guthrie n/a January 6, 2010, 7:03 pm

Source: National Cyclopedia of American Biography
Author: James T. White Co.

Charles Lee Smith

Tenth president of Mercer University (1905-06) - was born at Wilton, Granville 
County, North Carolina, Aug. 29, 1865, son of Louis Turner and Nannie Green 
(Howell) Smith; grandson of John and Sallie (Bradford) Smith; great-grandson 
of John and Nancy (Wilson) Smith; and great-great-grandson of James Smith of 
Virginia. His family is of English origin, having settled in Virginia at an 
early date, and on both sides are ancestors who bore an honorable part in the 
revolutionary war.

His parents moved to Durham, NC, in 1875, where the son was prepared for 
college at Buchanan's School. He was graduated at Wake Forest College in 1884, 
and then took a post-graduate course at Johns Hopkins University, receiving 
the degree of Ph.D. in 1889. He spent the summer semester of 1888 at 
University of Halle. During his senior year at Wake Forest he was chief editor 
of "The Wake Forest Student" and upon graduating, became a teacher in the 
Raleigh Male Academy and associate editor of the "Biblical Recorder" (1884-85.

During his connection with Johns Hopkins (1886-91) he was successively 
university scholar, fellow in history and politics, instructor in history, and 
lecturer on sociology. During 1889-91, while still a member of the academic 
staff, he was general secretary of the Baltimore Charity Organization Society.

In 1889 he was appointed by the governor of Maryland a delegate to the 
national conference of charities and corrections which met at San Francisco, 
and was elected a secretary of that body for 1890. Resigning his Baltimore 
positions in January, 1891, he took the chair of history and political science 
in William Jewell College, Liberty, Mo., but resigned in 1905 to accept the 
presidency of Mercer University, Macon, Ga.

In June 1906, after a year of exceptional prosperity, the endowment having 
been increased and new buildings secured through his efforts, failing to 
receive, as he thought, proper support from the trustees in carrying out his 
policies, he resigned the presidency. He was succeeded by Dr. Samuel Young 
Jameson.

Since 1906 Dr. Smith has been a member of the Edwards & Broughton Printing Co. 
at Raleigh, NC. In 1901 he was Gay lecturer in Southern Baptist Theological 
Seminary. He was a pioneer university extension lecturer and reviews to 
periodicals, and is the author of "The History of Education in North Carolina" 
(1888) and other monographs.

Wake Forest College conferred the honoary degree of LL.D. upon him in 1906. 
Dr. Smith is a mason and a member of The Capital Club (Raleigh), The Country 
Club (Raleigh) and other organizations. Gov. W. W. Kitchin in 1909 appointed 
him a member of the Library Commission of North Carolina, which was created by 
act of that year's legislature.

He was married at High Point, NC, Oct. 24, 1889, to Sllie Lindsay, daughter of 
Dr. William Oliver and Elizabeth Clay (Lindsay) Jones, and has four Children: 
Howell Lindsay, William Oliver, Katherine Clark and Charles Lee Smith, Jr.

Additional Comments:
Source:
The National Cyclopedia 
of American Biography
Volume XIV
1910

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