Morgan Callaway, Jr. (1862-1936), scholar and teacher, the son of Morgan and Eliza Mary (Hinton) Callaway, was born on November 3, 1862, in Cuthbert, Georgia. His father was a professor of English at Emory College, where Callaway obtained his B.A. degree in 1881 and his M.A. in 1883. He was adjunct professor of English at Emory from 1881 to 1883 and moved to Texas as principal of an academy at Chireno for a year. He became professor of English at Southwestern University in 1884 and remained there for two years before going to Johns Hopkins University, where he was made Phi Beta Kappa, was a fellow in English, and took his Ph.D. degree in 1889, after seminar work with the philologist James W. Bright.

Callaway returned to Southwestern in 1889 but in 1890 joined the English staff of the University of Texas, where he rose to the rank of professor. He also served as assistant literary editor of the Library of Southwestern Literature from 1909 to 1923. He was awarded an honorary doctorate by Southern Methodist University in 1924 and was made faculty research lecturer at the University of Texas in 1925. Callaway maintained uncompromising standards in the teaching of English composition and grammar. He married Lora Hanah Smith, a former pupil, on August 3, 1920. He was a Democrat and a member of the Methodist church. Callaway died on April 3, 1936, and was buried in Austin.