Charles Warren, a graduate of the Trinity College in Durham, North Carolina, arrived in Chatham, Virginia, in 1906. He had heard of the dire need for schools in the Chatham area, and decided to take on the challenge himself. Warren organised a day school at the end of Merchant Street, which came to be known as the Warren Training School. WTS averaged an enrollment of twenty boys. After its third session in May 1909, a lack of funds forced Warren to close the school.
Warren was hired as headmaster of the Chatham Training School for the 1909–1910 year. He and John K. Hutton constituted the entire CTS faculty, presiding over seventeen boarding and eighteen day students. At the close of the second session in 1911, Charles R. Warren submitted his resignation. After Warren's departure, the office of headmaster was abolished at the Chatham Training School and replaced with the office of president, with Reverend T. Ryland Sanford being the first to hold the new title.