The letters of William Wesley Staley, Elon's second president, are now available for viewing online through Elon's Belk LIbrary Archives and Special Collections. Read this post to access the letters and learn more about Staley's life and achievements.
Click the link to the right to visit the Staley letters collection in Belk Library.
William Wesley Staley was born Feb. 24, 1849, five miles from Graham, N.C. He lost his father, Tilden Staley, at age 5. His mother, Melissa Jane Clendennin Staley, raised William and his two younger sisters on her own until she remarried.
In 1879, William Staley married Pattie Pearce of Franklin County, N.C. The couple had three daughters, all of whom graduated from Elon: Bessie Staley Cheatham (1898), Annie Staley Calhoun (1902) and Willie Staley Holden (1904).
A minister and farmer, Staley lived in Suffolk, Va., where he served as pastor for the Suffolk Christian Church for 50 years. He received a bachelor’s degree and a master’s degree from Trinity College, now Duke University; a doctor of divinity degree from the now-defunct Union Christian College; and an honorary doctor of laws degree from Elon College. He also pursued graduate studies at the University of Virginia. It’s believed he was the only member of the Southern Christian Church to have had university training at the time.
Besides serving as Elon College’s non-resident president from 1894 to 1905, Staley served on Elon’s board of trustees since the college’s inception until the time of his death. He also taught at Graham High School for three years, served as superintendent for Alamance County schools for two years and was active for many years in several organizations, including the Eastern Virginia Conference, Southern Christian Convention, Christian Publishing Association and Federal Council of Churches of Christ in America.
Staley died Oct. 9, 1932, at age 83. An article published in The Christian Sun (Suffolk, Va.) about his death reported an estimated 3,000 people of different races and denominations filed past his casket to pay their respects. A dormitory built in 1968 on Elon’s campus was named Staley Hall in his honor.
by Keren Rivas ’04