Catalog Record:
The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the Library's online catalog. They are grouped by name of person or organization, by subject or location, and by occupation and listed alphabetically therein.
The sermons of Samuel Edward Axson, Presbyterian clergyman of Rome, Ga., father of Ellen Axson Wilson, first wife of President Woodrow Wilson, were given to the Library of Congress by Francis B. Sayre, Jr., in 1977.
The collection was processed circa 1975. The finding aid was revised in 2009.
The status of copyright in the unpublished writings of Samuel Edward Axson is governed by the Copyright Law of the United States (Title 17, U.S.C.).
The sermons of Samuel Edward Axson are open to research. Researchers are advised to contact the Manuscript Reading Room prior to visiting. Many collections are stored off-site and advance notice is needed to retrieve these items for research use.
Researchers wishing to cite this collection should include the following information: Container number, Samuel Edward Axson Sermons, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.
Samuel Edward Axson (circa 1836-1884) was pastor of the First Presbyterian Church in Rome, Georgia, 1866-1883, and the father of Ellen Louis Axson Wilson, first wife of Woodrow Wilson. who met during that period. Educated at Oglethorpe University and Columbia Theological Seminary, Axson was licensed by the Presbytery of Charleston and served as city missionary in Augusta, Georgia, pastor of the Beech Island Presbyterian Church in Aiken County, South Carolina, 1859-1861, and at McPhersonville and Madison, South Carolina, before his final tenure at Rome. He was as a chaplain, 1862-1864, to a South Carolina regiment of the Confederate army during the Civil War, and married Margaret Jane Hoyt in 1858.
The sermons of Samuel Edward Axson (circa 1836-1884) span the years 1857-1880 and consist mainly of holograph sermons and devotional talks by Axson written in various hands. Most were delivered during his pastorate at the First Presbyterian Church in Rome, Georgia, 1866-1884, but they include presentations at Augusta, George, where he was city missionary in the 1850s, and at Presbyterian churches in Beech Island, McPherson, and Madison, South Carolina, as well as at Savannah, Georgia, and New Orleans, Louisiana, together with talks before Methodist and Baptist congregants.
This collection is arranged chronologically with a published sermon of 1878 at the end.