In the headline of his obituary, in the Washington Post,
in 1936,
George L. carter was called the 'Last Empire Builder.'
Carter created three empires;
in iron, in railroad,
and in coal.
Yet his lasting legacy to us comes not from
what has survived of these empires,
but rather from the ideal of a fourth empire.
The blending of the southern Appalachian region
into the economic fabric
of the American nation,
a process he influenced perhaps more profoundly
than any other individual of his time.
In Carter, Appalachia produced its own version of Hill, the railroad baron,
of Morgan the financier,
Rockefeller the energy tycoon,
and Flagler
the town developer.
Unlike his better known contemporaries, Carter's achievement is perhaps more
remarkable
since he did it without leaving home.
Though his fortune did not compare with that of
other industrialists of this era,
he was certainly one of the wealthiest native-born sons
of the Appalachian Mountain Region.
Since childhood, education had been an abiding interest for Carter.
Much of his business training was self taught.
In 1909,
the Tennessee General Assembly
gave Carter the opportunity to make
his most significant
and lasting contribution
to education in this native region.
That year, a general education law was adopted
which, among other points,
called for the establishment of a normal,
or teachers training school
in each of the State's three grand divisions,
east, middle, and west Tennessee.
Rivalries between regions quickly broke out as establishment of a teacher
training school meant jobs,
increased economic activity as well as social, educational,
and cultural advancement
for the winning city.
Johnson City became the scene of intense lobbying for the State Normal School.
Most of its community leaders worked in the effort,
though they gradually came to be divided over the best location in the
City.
In early June of 1909,
community leaders ultimately convinced the City Council
to approve a $75,000 bond issue
for the construction of school buildings
if Johnson City was selected.
Soon thereafter,
the Washington County Court also approved a $75,000 issue,
bringing the total of Johnson City's bid to $150,000.
During these early developments,
Carter himself stayed in the background
biding his time.
Certain members of the Johnson City promoters were old Carter rivals
who wanted to see the school located on proptery they owned,
in the Carnegie section of town.
Several times Carter and these gentlemen had competed,
each seeking to promote their own holdings.
In September (1909)
Governor Malcolm R. Patterson,
and a delegation of the State Board of Education
came to Johnson City.
It was a part of the tourist cities bidding for the normals.
Carter's interest in the location became more public.
He was part of a reception committee,
and several hundred spectators,
who greeted the visitors.
The party toured the grounds of some hundred and twenty acres
on the western edge of the city owned by Carter
who offered the property free of charge, and had convinced City officials
to provide free electricity and water.
Carter also offered to provide annual prizes of twenty five dollars
each, to Honors Students.
Following an elegant luncheon held at Mountain Home,
the Nashville delegation was taken on a tour
of the Carnegie Realty Company holdings
on the eastern edge of the City.
This was some of the same property
which Carter had recently attempted to acquire for construction
of the Clinchfield Railroad.
Yet, being unsuccessful,
he had placed the yards in Erwin, Tennessee.
The delegation returned to Nashville without making any commitment.
The following month,
the State Board held discussions with some twenty-two rival cities
in Nashville.
On December the 1st, 1909,
the Board announced its decision.
The normal schools were to be located in Murfreesboro,
Middle Tennessee State Normal School,
Memphis,
West Tennessee State Normal School,
and Johnson City,
East Tennessee State Normal School.
When this news reached Johnson City,
the whistles of the mills and factories sounded a great,
great news!
In February, 1910,
Governor Patterson led the State Board back to Johnson City
to make a final decision
on which piece of property would be the new school's location.
After a tour of the Carnegie property,
the delegation seemed to lean toward this site,
mostly because it offered more land.
Sensing this,
Carter supposedly button-holed Governor Paterson
and asked that no decision be made until the Board took another look
at the property he had to offer.
Patterson agreed.
During the night,
Carter had a construction crew clear the road
to the top of a wooded summit
overlooking his property,
land which Patterson had earlier asked might be included in the Carter offer.
A railway spur line
already existed to his property,
created in order to haul materials during the construction of his home.
Now this line was used to bring in equipment,
workers, and rock, and gravel
for the building of a road bed.
The nearby livery stables of Samuel R. Taylor
provided teams and scrapers
with which to level the crown of the two hills,
one where Gilbreath Hall would later stand,
and one at a higher elevation,
known as Reservoir Hill.
As if by Alladin's lamp,
Carter created a road overnight.
Early the next morning,
he awakened J.P. Lyle,
and paid him fourteen hundred dollars an acre.
He acquired additional property
that he needed to make his holdings
even more attractive.
His work done,
Carter greeted the first barber he could find at 6:30 a.m.
with a shave
before beginning the tour with the Board.
He took the delegations in carriages up the newly cleared road.
From there they could see the whole property,
a beautiful piece of rolling partly wooded farm land,
valued at some $60,000.
The added property and Carter's promise of $100,000 to go with
the 120 acres,
swung the scales in his favor.
The board accepted the site
and at last he had his revenge on his Carnegie rivals.
Carter's support of an institution of higher education
was part of a trend in late nineteenth and early twentieth century America.
Great capitalists and entrepreneurs funded private institutions
which would be named for them
and whose direction could be controlled
to some extent by them.
Carter's is a rare case.
He helped establish a public institution
which would not be named for him,
and over which he would have no control.
Its operations would be taxpayer supported
and directed by school officials in Nashville.
It highlights the fact that,
unlike many other captains of industry,
Carter was not intersted in personal glory.
An attempt was once made to
rename the school after him.
Carter squashed this idea.
He insisted that he wanted no conventional form of memorial from the school.
He knew what he had done
and he needed nothing with his name on it
to remind him of this gift.
The founding of East Tennessee State Normal School was mutually beneficial
to Carter and the school.
It's location enhanced the value of Carter's various businesses,
his real estate interests in Johnson City.
The community and the region benefited from increased educational opportunities
as well as social and cultural advantages
brought by an institution of higher learning.
Carter not only supported the school with his contributions of money and land,
he provided it with one of its first students.
In 1911,
his son James
was enrolled in the Normal School's On Campus Training,
or Laboratory School.
Carter also took great interest in the grounds of the Campus.
He paid a professional landscape specialist
to help design the grounds
and to plant many of the initial trees and shrubs,
many of which still may be found on Campus today.
On april 15th, 1910,
Sidney G. Gilbreath
was appointed East Tennessee State Normal School's
first President
and ultimately sited the Campus.
Carter and the Board's original intention had been to locate the campus
on a wooded hill south of the present campus.
While it gave a magnificent view of the surrounding countryside,
and the blue gray Unaka Mountains,
Gilbreath quietly noted a concern to Carter.
"I told him that, while the view was magnificent,
I was thinking of the hundreds of tons of coal that would have to be hauled up the hill,
the climb that have to be made by the students residing and boarding in the
City.
and I felt that a better site could be found.
Carter then took him aside, and they walked over the hill
where the main building
Gilbreath Hall now stands.
Gilbreath found a stake and drove it into the ground at what would become the
middle of the main building.
Later, as engineers began the campus development,
they started from the stake in their measurements.
The initial Campus buildings consisted of the Main
or Administration Building,
present day Gilbreath Hall,
a heating plant,
a cafeteria,
and a women's dormitory.
This latter building was called
Carter Hall,
in honor of Mayetta Carter,
and it's still used as a residence hall.
It is the only recognition of his influence
on the Campus
that Carter permitted
being that it honored his wife and not himself.
Broad men have narrow egos.
With his mansion adjoining the Campus,
Carter retained a keen interest in the school and regularly could be seen walking
the grounds
during the remaining years he resided in the City.
Long trains still bring to market coal from properties Carter developed,
over rail lines Carter devised,
helping supply the world's energy demand.
Readers of the Bristol Herald Courier
in opening their morning paper,
are probably unaware that it exists because of decisions made almost a hundred years
ago by Carter,
in merging its sickly forerunners.
The man driving to work in Kingsport,
joined by thousands of other employees in a great modern city
probably does not realize that he is able to make the drive
and get a nice paycheck
because of Carter's vision in 1905
of an industrial city.
The nearly fifteen thousand Students
and some two thousand Employees
of East Tennessee State University
come to Campus in Johnson City
rather than Sweetwater,
or Newport, or Morristown
because of Carter's efforts.
Throughout the region, from Roanoke, Virginia,
to Spartanburg, South Carolina,
to Middlesboro, Kentucky, to McDowell County, West Virginia,
and many cities and towns in between,
to small stores and great factories,
people go work in places which were located there because of
George L. Carter.
In a hundred different ways every day,
people are being influenced by the actions of a man
they never knew,
a man largely forgotten.