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[Identification of item], Marion T. Plyler Papers, University Archives, Duke University.
The Marion T. Plyler Papers were received by the University Archives as a transfer in 1971.
Processed by Kimberly Sims, August 2006
Encoded by Kimberly Sims, August 2006
Accession is described in this finding aid.
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This finding aid is NCEAD compliant.
Marion Timothy Plyler was born in Iredell County, N.C., near Statesville in 1867. He was the son of Robert Conrad Plyler and Mary Kimball Plyler. He received his boyhood education in the Iredell County schools and a boarding school in Mooresville. He graduated from Trinity College in 1892 with a B. A. degree and played on the school's first football team. He earned his M. A. degree at Trinity in 1897 and received his Doctor of Divinity degree from Duke University in 1937. Additionally, Dr. Plyler received the M. A. degree and the D. D. degree from the University of North Carolina in 1905 and 1931, respectively.
Dr. Plyler was ordained as a minister in the Methodist Church in 1892 and served several pastorates throughout North Carolina before moving to Durham in 1919. He and his twin brother, Alva, edited the NC Christian Advocate from 1926-1946 and he also helped organize the North Carolina Pastors' School and chaired its board of management for 30 years. He wrote several biographies, including an unpublished one of William Preston Few, President of Trinity College and Duke University. He was a member of Phi Beta Kappa.
On June 20, 1900, he married Epie Duncan Smith, and they had seven children. Dr. Plyler died in 1954 at age 86.
Contains typescripts, correspondence, and printed matter, with the bulk of the material consisting of the manuscript of Dr. Plyler's unpublished biography of William Preston Few, written in 1948-1949, as well as copies of Few's writings and addresses. There are several folders of related printed matter, research notes, and articles, including typescripts annotated by Dr. Few and Dean Alice Baldwin. Correspondence concerns the North Carolina Pastors' School, Methodist Conference matters, and the Few biography. The collection also includes some genealogical notes and other typescripts by Dr. Plyler. The collection ranges in date from 1832-1950.
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