Charles was born in Charleston, South Carolina to James S. and Mary Stillman on March 14, 1819. He attended Oglethorpe University in Georgia and received his degree in 1841. He then received his divinity degree from Columbia Theological Seminary in 1844 and proceeded to be licensed by Charleston Presbytery later that year. The Second Presbyterian Church of Charleston provided the opportunity for Charles to exercise his ministerial gifts until 1845. In 1845 he was ordained by Tuscaloosa Presbytery to receive a call to the Presbyterian Church in Eutaw, Alabama where he served until 1853. Remaining in Alabama, Rev. Stillman received a call to be the pastor of the Gainesville church where he ministered until 1870. It was in 1863, while he was at Gainesville, that Charles received the Doctor of Divinity degree from the University of Alabama. Dr. Stillman's next call was to the Presbyterian Church at Tuscaloosa where he began his longest ministry in 1870 and continued there until his death on January 23, 1895.

Dr. Stillman's non-pastoral ministerial efforts were many. He was the Chairman of Tuscaloosa Presbytery's Home Missions Committee. From 1847 until 1884 he served as the Stated Clerk of Tuscaloosa Presbytery. One of his most significant achievements was when a group of Tuscaloosa Presbyterians, headed by Dr. Stillman, presented an overture to the 1875 General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in the United States concerning a training school for Black ministers. The 1876 General Assembly followed the recommendation of its specially appointed committee and authorized establishing the Institute for Training Colored Ministers at Tuscaloosa. In the fall of 1876 Charles Stillman taught its first classes. The Institute came to be named the Stillman Institute in honor of its devoted founder who served as its superintendent from its founding until his death. The curriculum and nature of its educational program has changed over the years and it is known today as Stillman College.

Charles Stillman was married three times. He married his first wife, Martha Hammond of Milledgeville, Georgia, on October 15, 1846. His second marriage was to the widow Fannie Collins of Shubuta, Mississippi, whom he married on April 17, 1866. Elfreda Walker of Clarksville, Tennessee was his third wife and they were married on April 17, 1872. At least two of Dr. Stillman's descendants continued to serve the Presbyterian Church--his daughter, Anna M. Stillman, was a secretary for Rev. T. P. Mordecai at the First Presbyterian Church, in Birmingham, Alabama, and his grandson, Rev. Charles Sholl, was the pastor of the Avondale Presbyterian Church, another of the Presbyterian churches in Birmingham.

[Sources: The above information was taken from: White, Henry Alexander, Southern Presbyterian Leaders, 1683-1911, (1911, reprint, Edinburgh: Banner of Truth, 2000); Marshall, James W., as ed. by Robert Strong, The Presbyterian Church in Alabama, (Montgomery: The Presbyterian Historical Society of Alabama, 1977); Scott, E. C., Ministerial Directory of the Presbyterian Church, U.S., 1861-1941, Published by Order of the General Assembly, 1942; Nevin, Alfred, ed., Presbyterian Encyclopedia, 1884; Minutes of the General Assembly of the P.C.U.S. for 1875 and 1876; various library web-sites, and the Stillman College web-site.]

Papers of C.A. Stillman:
At this moment, we have not been able to locate where the Papers of Charles Allen Stillman may have been preserved. Some Stillman correspondence is to be found among various collections housed at the Presbyterian Historical Society's Montreat, NC office. Specifically, the Papers of Abner Addison Porter [1817-1872]

Bibliography:
Articles appearing in the Southern Presbyterian Review:
Giving, an Essential Part of True Piety, 21.4 (October, 1870) 505-519.
Success in the Ministry, 9.1 (July 1855) 72-84.
The Benefits of Infant Baptism, 17.2 (September 1866) 149-162.

Articles appearing in The Presbyterian Quarterly:
The Birmingham Conference, 8.2 (April 1894) 272-276.

Other Publications:
Discourse on "The Pulpit and the Pastorate," in Memorial Volume of the Semi-Centennial of the Theological Seminary at Columbia, South Carolina. (Columbia, SC: Presbyterian Publishing House, 1884), pages 84-95. [numerous libraries] 4"Sprinkling and Pouring, Spiritual Modes of Baptism: A Sermon Preached by Order of the Presbytery of Tuskaloosa, and Published by their Request" (Montgomery: Barret & Wimbish, 1859), 16pp. [ALM; NDD; SBT; IXA]
"The Dead of the Synod of Alabama. Presbyterian Church U. S. from 1862 to 1890. A Memorial Sermon." (Birmingham, Ala.: Roberts & Sons, 1891), 16pp. [VYN]
"The Death of the Righteous. A sermon preached in the Presbyterian Church at Gainesville, Alabama, on Sunday, December 23, 1855, on Occasion of the Death of Dr. Anson Brackett." (New York: R. Craighead, 1856), 16pp. [PRE]
The Pulpit and the Pastorate, in Memorial Volume of the Semi-Centennial of the Theological Seminary at Columbia, South Carolina, (Columbia, SC: Printed at the Presbyterian Publishing House, 1884) pp. 84-95. [HC]
Biographical Sketch of William Curdy Emerson, in Memorial Volume of the Semi-Centennial of the Theological Seminary at Columbia, South Carolina, (Columbia, SC: Printed at the Presbyterian Publishing House, 1884), pg. 268. [HC]
Biographical Sketch of William Inge Hogan, in Memorial Volume of the Semi-Centennial of the Theological Seminary at Columbia, South Carolina, (Columbia, SC: Printed at the Presbyterian Publishing House, 1884), pp. 290-291. [HC]
"A Discourse Delivered in the Baptist Church, Carlowville, Alabama, by Rev. Charles A. Stillman, Pastor of the Presbyterian Church, Eutaw, Alabama." (Cahawba, Ala.: Printed by Charles E. Haynes, 1848), 12pp. [KTS; SBT; also available in microform, 1 microfilm reel; 35 mm., (SOLINET/ASERL Cooperative Microfilming Project (NEH PA-23510-00); SOL NM09066.18 SBT)]
Annual reports of the executive committee of the Institute for the Training of Colored Ministers, at Tuskaloosa, Alabama, to the general assembly of the Presbyterian Church in the United States, as contained in the Minutes of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in the United States, starting in 1877. Reports specifically signed by Dr. Stillman include the years 1877, pages 451-453; 1881, pages 417-418; 1886, pages 86-88, Reports were unsigned in 1880, [pages 248-249]; 1882, [pages 592-594]; 1883, [pages 80-81, unsigned]; 1890, [pages 88-89]; 1891, [pages 277-279]. The report for 1887, [pages 276-278] was signed by a Stillman co-worker, the Rev. James Searcy. The reports for the years 1878, 1879, 1884, 1885, 1888, 1889, 1892, 1893, 1894 have not yet been individually inspected. Please check back later.
The Stillman Family is most proud to have this outstanding institution bear the Stillman family name.