Professor Charles C. McCollum
Notes of Interest and photos of home.
Charles C. McCollum was born on September 11, 1873 in Baileyton Tennessee, Greene County. He was the son of Samuel and Lucinda (Allen) McCollum. His parents were also natives of Tennessee. His father engaged in farming and merchandising and was a lifelong resident of Greene County. His father died in July, 1899 and his mother died November, 1897.
Mr. McCollum supplemented his public school training by a course at Tusculum College in Greene County. He graduated in 1894, receiving a degree in Bachelor of Arts. He taught for a year in North Carolina.
In the Spring of 1896, he came to Wrens, Georgia to pursue his teaching skills. He was in charge of a country school known as Woodland Academy for a short time, then in fall of 1896 he returned to Wrens, where he has taught for twenty-one years. He made a notable record as superintendent of the public school.
Wrens Institute offered a variety of choices to study besides the regular high school courses, including vocational work in teacher training, sports, home economics and agriculture, the latter being the first such course offered in the state.
In June 1901, Mr. McCollum married Lola Fleming a former student, ten years his junior. Lola Fleming was the daughter of Chalmers J. and Julia (Stone) Fleming, natives of Georgia. Her father followed agricultural pursuits as a young man and later located in Wrens. Once in Wrens her father engaged in merchandising for many years. He passed away in 1912. Mr. and Mrs. McCollum were the parents of four children: W. Bruce, Lucille, Charles C. and Charlmers F. McCollum. Their home, across the road from the school was opened to the young people through the years, reflecting the unselfish, loving care personified in the lives of C. C. and Lola McCollum.
Mr. McCollum was the owner of valuable farm property in Jefferson County and for seventeen years he was the secretary and treasurer of the McNair-Young Company, which operated an Oil Mill in Wrens, Georgia.
He was a gentle man of irreproachable character and morals, Mr. McCollum was loyal to his church, serving as a lay leader and Sunday School teacher in the Wrens Methodist Episcopal Church, which later became Wrens United Methodist.
He spent seventy-five of his ninety-eight years devotedly educating and promoting the well being of young people in the Wrens area. He lived out most of his life here in Wrens, Georgia before he died on October 2, 1971.
After the death of Mr. McCollum, his family gave the Family Memorial Library many of his personal effects: Medals that he won, watches, pictures that he had saved through the years, yearbooks of Wrens Institute and many other things.
My father in law, Mack Edward Brooks, Sr., says he can remember when he was a student at Wrens High School, Mr. McCollum getting in his car and driving to the end of his short driveway, getting out of his car and going to the front of his car to look both ways on the street he was about to enter. Once the traffic was clear he immediately rushed back to his car, got in his car and floored it across the street without looking while entering the road to the school which was right across the street. You could see the McCollum home from the school and the students watched Mr. McCollum do this same ritual each day.
Photos taken of the McCollum home, March 7, 2007. This home is in bad shape. You can view the inside from the back door and the floors have caved in.
Home facing Highway 1 and the Wrens Middle School.
Back of the house.
Right side View of the home.
