Life and BusinessOf
George Lafayette Carter
1857-1936
By Sebert L. Sisson
In the late 1800′s and early 1900′s the development of the natural resources in southwestern Virginia, eastern Tennessee, southern West Virginia, and eastern Kentucky led to the rise of complex business empires. Many men, mostly from outside the Appalachian region became famous as entrepreneurs, coal barons, and railroad builders. However, one man who built such an empire and who, more than any other man, brought industrial development to these areas, is today virtually unknown even in the very places he once owned and developed. Not an “outsider” but a man who was born and reared in southwestern Virginia, his business career lasted more than fifty years and generated millions of dollars and thousands of jobs.
George Lafayette Carter was born January 10, 1857 near the town of Hillsville in Carroll County, Virginia. He was the oldest of nine children of Walter Crockett and Lucy Ann Jennings Carter. George L. (as Mr. Carter was known) grew up under trying circumstances where he was forced to assume much of the responsibilities in providing a living for the family. His father was a disabled Confederate veteran who had served as a captain in the local militia and had sustained injuries which led to the amputation of one leg. Five of his brothers and sisters died before reaching age twenty. Three sisters lived to adulthood. Bertie married Marshall W. Doggett, a Presbyterian minister who served a number of churches in the Kingsport, Tennessee area. Ruth married J. Fred Johnson, who was later closely associated with Carter in his many business endeavors. Lara June married Robert G. Wilkinson and remained in Hillsville where a number of their descendents now live.
At age sixteen, George L. Carter began his first job as a clerk in Johnson’s General Store in Hillsville (the store belonged to the family of J. Fred Johnson). He earned fifty cents a week plus board. He was quoted in later years as saying that one of the greatest thrills of his early life was when he earned enough money working at this job to purchase his own horse and saddle.
In 1877, Carter was employed by the Wythe Lead Mine Company in Austinville, Virginia on the New River (Wythe County, Virginia). Here he held positions as bookkeeper, buyer and later manager of the company. The lead mine operation needed considerable capital improvements at that time and the owners did not think they could get adequate financing. The Board of Directors authorized Carter to sell the plant and mining land at a specified price. Realizing that should he be successful in selling the property, the new owners would need considerable more acreage of adjacent land for future expansion, Carter immediately secured options on additional mining land in the area. He was assisted in financing the deal by his banking friend and future father-in-law, James Wilkinson of Hillsville.
In the late 1800′s and early 1900′s the development of the natural resources in southwestern Virginia, eastern Tennessee, southern West Virginia, and eastern Kentucky led to the rise of complex business empires. Many men, mostly from outside the Appalachian region became famous as entrepreneurs, coal barons, and railroad builders. However, one man who built such an empire and who, more than any other man, brought industrial development to these areas, is today virtually unknown even in the very places he once owned and developed. Not an “outsider” but a man who was born and reared in southwestern Virginia, his business career lasted more than fifty years and generated millions of dollars and thousands of jobs.
George Lafayette Carter was born January 10, 1857 near the town of Hillsville in Carroll County, Virginia. He was the oldest of nine children of Walter Crockett and Lucy Ann Jennings Carter. George L. (as Mr. Carter was known) grew up under trying circumstances where he was forced to assume much of the responsibilities in providing a living for the family. His father was a disabled Confederate veteran who had served as a captain in the local militia and had sustained injuries which led to the amputation of one leg. Five of his brothers and sisters died before reaching age twenty. Three sisters lived to adulthood. Bertie married Marshall W. Doggett, a Presbyterian minister who served a number of churches in the Kingsport, Tennessee area. Ruth married J. Fred Johnson, who was later closely associated with Carter in his many business endeavors. Lara June married Robert G. Wilkinson and remained in Hillsville where a number of their descendents now live.
At age sixteen, George L. Carter began his first job as a clerk in Johnson’s General Store in Hillsville (the store belonged to the family of J. Fred Johnson). He earned fifty cents a week plus board. He was quoted in later years as saying that one of the greatest thrills of his early life was when he earned enough money working at this job to purchase his own horse and saddle. In 1877, Carter was employed by the Wythe Lead Mine Company in Austinville, Virginia on the New River (Wythe County, Virginia). Here he held positions as bookkeeper, buyer and later manager of the company. The lead mine operation needed considerable capital improvements at that time and the owners did not think they could get adequate financing. The Board of Directors authorized Carter to sell the plant and mining land at a specified price. Realizing that should he be successful in selling the property, the new owners would need considerable more acreage of adjacent land for future expansion, Carter immediately secured options on additional mining land in the area. He was assisted in financing the deal by his banking friend and future father-in-law, James Wilkinson of Hillsville.
Surprisingly, Carter did succeed in closing the sale of the lead mine holdings to the New Jersey Zinc Company for some $10,000 above the quoted price. He also sold them all the land and mineral rights that he had under option in the area. This was Mr. Carter’s first successful business venture, and it was the foundation upon which he was to build his empire.
George L. Carter was familiar with the existing iron mining and charcoal fired furnaces along the New River in Wythe and Pulaski Counties many of which were not doing well financially. Carter became associated with George T. Mills who was building the Dora Iron Furnace in Pulaski, Virginia. When Mills died before the furnace was completed, Carter moved from vice president and manager to president of the operation.
While at Dora Furance, Carter developed a plan whereby several of the small dying charcoal fired furnaces merged into one operation. After convincing a number of the companies to join him, he immediately borrowed $400,000 against the property using the newly combined venture as collateral and developed a new quality iron known as Dora Pig.
It was obvious in a short time that the price of coke then being processed and transported from the Pennsylvania coal fields to the Dora furnace facilities in Pulaski and become one of the major costs in the operation. Needing less expensive coal to fire his furnace, Carter began exploring coal veins in southwestern Virginia and southern West Virginia. Because of the availability of rail service, Carter opened his first mine at Crane’s Nest on Tom’s Creek in Wise County, Virginia. In a short period he had established a second modern mining facility there and was operating 700 coke ovens. About the same time, his company purchased the Crozier Furnace in Roanoke, Virginia and combined it with the Dora furnace and Tom’s Creek operations. In 1898 the new company was named the Carter Coal and Iron Company.
The Carter Coal and Iron Company moved its headquarters to two rooms of the State and Moore Building in Bristol, Virginia. The company made large land purchases in the undeveloped, mineral wealthy mountain regions including approximately 20,000 acres near Middlesboro, Kentucky.
Seeking additional capital for expansion, Carter went to New York City where he found backing from the first of Moore and Schley. That company “advanced him $10 million to exploit the mineral wealth of his region”, 4 and Carter began his collaboration with northern financiers that was to continue for many years.
Realizing that the new enterprise would require more capital, George L. Carter, Ben L. Dulaney, and John H. Caldwell organized the Virginia Iron, Coal and Coke Company (VICCC) in 1899. The twelve-million dollar company of which Carter was the president had its central offices in Bristol, Virginia. It generated industrial growth in the Bristol area and brought a number of plants and businesses to the community.
The Virginia Iron, Coal and Coke Company under Mr. Carter’s leadership acquired the iron mills of the Crescent Horseshoe and Iron Company and the Radford pipe works, built iron furnaces at Max Meadows and Ivanhoe, Virginia, and a tool plant in Middlesboro, Kentucky. To reach these operations, the company acquired control of the 136-mile Virginia and southwestern Railroad extending from Big Stone Gap in Virginia through Bristol to Maymead, Tennessee.6 The Virginia Iron, Coal and Coke Company purchased 150,000 acres of coal mining land in southwestern Virginia plus 60,000 acres of iron mining land including much of the iron deposits along the New River, Cripple Creek, and Little Reed Creek in Wythe County; along the New River in Pulaski County; and the great Gossan Lead and the Betty Baker Mine in Carroll County.
On April 9, 1895 when George L. was thirty-eight years old, he married Mayetta, the twenty-four year old daughter of James and Lillian J. Reeves Wilkinson of Hillsville and in June, 1896 their only son, James Walter, was born. The Carters moved from Pulaski, Virginia to Bristol, Virginia around 1900 and bought a house at 210 Solar Street. While millions of dollars were generated by Carter’s businesses, he and his wife remained private people taking part in no social organizations and activities. Most of his business was done through his agents and the many attorneys Mr. Carter kept on staff. His real estate holdings were extensive, and at one time he owned about one-fourth of the total area of present day Bristol.7 His businesses included several banks, flour mills, and the Bristol Herald Courier among others. In 1901 his income from the VICCC salary alone was listed at $15,000.8 His financial standing allowed the family the luxury of a nurse to care for their son and a cook for the family.
In March, 1901 the Virginia Iron, Coal and Coke Company defaulted after the discovery of a higher quality iron ore in the Great Lakes area of the country. Carter could have lost a great amount of money but he filed suit and Judge A. A. Phlegar, Carter’s friend, was appointed to receivership in the case. After a hard fought battle, Carter received $500,000 for his portion of the business.
Even before the collapse of the Virginia Iron, Coal and Coke Company, Carter had begun what would be his greatest undertaking-the building of the Carolina, Clinchfield, and Ohio Railroad. He originally planned for the line to serve the rich Clinchfield coal fields with terminals in Chicago in the northwest and in Southport, North Carolina on the Atlantic seaboard at the southern end, but that scheme was too ambitious even for Mr. Carter. The final proposal was to build north from Johnson City to Elkhorn City, Kentucky and connect there with the Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad and south from Johnson City to connect with the Southern Railroad at Spartanburg, South Carolina. The terrain was rugged and mountainous and power machinery was not yet available. Most of the work was to be done by men and animals. Drilling the holes for dynamiting inside the tunnels and the cuts of right-of-way was done by hand. Upon its completion the railroad would cover about 275 miles, have some 50 tunnels, numerous trestles and viaducts.
Conservatively, the project would require some fifty million dollars and Carter again turned to northern financiers. He secured the backing of a group of investors who came to survey the proposed route, several of whom were later associated with the building of Kingsport, Tennessee. The group included: Thomas Fortune Ryan, a Virginia native who had made a fortune in northern utilities; Norman B. Ream, director of U.S. Steel and an important financier in Chicago; W. M. Ritter of Columbus, Ohio, leading lumberman who later marketed most of the timber; James A. Blair, New York banker, whose son James A. Blair, Jr. was later active in Kingsport; Isaac T. Mann, a banker and financier of Bramwell, West Virginia; John P. and H. R. Dennis, New York bankers who were to play an important role in Kingsport; and George A. Kent of Bristol, chief locating engineer. In 1904 George L. Carter was authorized by the group to proceed with the venture.
Through his agents and attorneys Carter began making massive land purchases in connection with the building of the railroad. He bought some 350,000 acres of coal mining land in Dickenson and Buchanan Counties, Virginia. According to C. J. Harkrader’s account, “Various sites for real estate development were considered including Marion, Altapass, and Spruce Pine, North Carolina; Erwin, Johnson City, and Old Kingsport, Tennessee; Clinchport and St. Paul in Virginia. Options on land would have to be obtained, if at all, before news of the railroad leaked out. Time was short so Carter made a hasty decision to make the first big strike at Kingsport. The plans for Erwin, Johnson City and elsewhere would have to wait”. His dream of a large modern planned industrial city in the area of Old Kingsport got top priority.
For the next decade Carter devoted his energies to the building of the Clinchfield Railroad. The construction of the line was costly in terms of money and human effort. Often the many Italians who came to work on the project had to be threatened with firearms to keep them on the job. Several years after it was completed MUNDY’S EARNING POWER OF RAILROADS said, “The road is of excellent type of costruction, and although traversing largely a mountainous country,no grades exceed 1.2% northbound and 1% southbound. George L. spent many hours riding the route with Engineer Kent in order to accomplish the completion of the line. The building of the Clinchfield Railroad was George L. Carter’s greatest accomplishment and although he had resigned as president of the corporation, he was allowed to drive the last spike of the railroad on February 19, 1915 in Dickerson County, Virginia.
The railroad was a profitable one and continues in operation today. In 1916 Thomas Ryan and the other stockholders decided to liquidate the Cumberland Corporation and sell its stock including the Carolina, Clinchfield, and Ohio Railroad. In 1924 those owners leased it jointly to the Louisville and Nashville Railroad and the Atlantic Coastline for 999 years.
Construction of the railroad led to the development of Kingsport, Tennessee. J. Fred Johnson, Carter’s brother-in-law and chief purchasing agent, had obtained for Carter’s corporation some 7000 acres of land in Old Kingsport, most of which cost $30-$40 an acre. After the land had been purchased, Carter moved J. H. Dobyns from Hillsville to Kingsport to manage the large number of newly vacated farms. Later, Carter sold this land to James A. Blair and Company in the name of Kingsport Farms, Inc. In 1915 the Kingsport Improvement Company was chartered with Johnson, James A. Blair, and John B. Dennis as major investors. They bought the land from Kingsport Farms for the establishment of a model town. In early 1916, Johnson moved to Kingsport and for the next 28 years dedicated himself totally to its growth and development. It has been written that probably no city in this country the size of Kingsport owes so much to one man.
When Carter began his plans for the railroad, his home and massive holdings were in Bristol, so citizens there were surprised when it was learned that Carter was moving his headquarters to Johnson City, Tennessee and that the railroad would bypass Bristol altogether. It was rumored that two businessmen had angered Carter by trying to get ahead of him in real estate purchases. Whatever his reasons, Carter quit Bristol and in 1906 moved his business operations and his family to Johnson City where he lived until 1916.
While living in Johnson City, he became a leading land owner and developer. When the state of Tennessee was looking for a town in which to build a new college, George L. tipped the scales for Johnson City by donating more than $100,000 and 150 acres of land for the college that would become East Tennessee State University. When he moved from Johnson City, he gave his home to the college and it was used for a boys dorm for some period of time.17 Earlier a girls dorm was constructed on campus and was named Carter Hall in honor of the Carters. It is still used today.
In 1916 Carter moved from Johnson City in the same manner in which he had moved to the city years before. Quickly and quietly, he ended all ties with the Clinchfield Railroad and its interests and sold his Kingsport land holdings to the Blair syndicate. About the same time he sold his many bank holdings which at one time included as many as twelve banks. One of the banks he owned was the City National Bank in Johnson City of which J. Fred Johnson was the president. Unfortunately, he and Johnson disagreed about its affairs and the quarrel was never resolved. In 1916 Carter moved to Coalwood, West Virginia, and Johnson went to Kingsport, Tennessee–their paths never met again.
Carter had seen the potential in mining the Pocahontas seam of high quality coal in McDowell County, West Virginia and Tazewell County, Virginia during his visit to the area in April, 1877. At that time he had ridden horseback from Tazewell through the mountains where he made his first contact with Daniel Harman who owned much of the land where Coalwood and Caretta are now located. Carter began buying land in 1902 when he organized the Virginia Pocahontas Coal Company, and on April 5, 1905 shipped the first load of coal from these mines.19
In 1912 Carter organized the Carter Coal Company and bought 16,000 acres of land in Big Creek District. To this he added 11,000 acres along the Cumberland River in Kentucky under the Inter-State Coal Company. About 1916 he purchased the Seaboard property, a 10,000 acre tract of coal lands near Richland in Tazewell County, Virginia.20
At Coalwood, Mr. Carter built a model town for his employees. It was written of the town:
……. He owned lock, stock, and barrel the model coaltown of Coalwood–houses, stores, churches, police, clergy, medical services, and all that makes up life for the miner. It is a town in remarkable contrast to surrounding villages where squalor and poverty are the world. With houses painted and surrounded by flower gardens and lawns, it looks more like an Alpine village than the begrimed coal towns of most of America.
At one time Coalwood had a doctor, two dentists and seven stores. Mr. Carter’s town also had a school, recreational facilities and indoor plumbing for the houses. He and his family lived in the Clubhouse where he added a third story for son, James Walter.
Carter who had spent a good deal of money on the Coalwood operation was beginning to reap the profits from his investments when, in February, 1922 he sold all the facilities in McDowell County to Consolidated Coal Company of New York for $17 million. Consolidated invested several million dollars in capital improvements at the Coalwood and Caretta plants and operated them for some five or six years before the coal industry collapsed. They were forced into receiver ship during the Depression and Carter was able to negotiate wittheir creditors for a quoted sum of $4 million. The Coalwood and Caretta facilities were transferred back to Carter on March 16, 1933.
During the time Consolidated Coal Company had possession of the McDowell operation, the Carters lived for a while in Washington, DC, and then returned “home” to Hillsville, Virginia. There they remodeled the house which Mayetta had inherited from her parents. George L. purchased 7400 acres in Wythe County near Fort Chiswell and leased another 5000 acres. Here he produced beef cattle, sheep, hogs, and turkeys. During certain seasons of the year he would hire as many as 200 people from the area to work on his farm operations.
Carter resumed control and full production of the Carter Coal Company in 1933. The company was reorganized with James Walter Carter as president and George L as vice president. In 1935 the Carter Coal Company sold its Kentucky tract to investors in Cinncinati. Soon after James Walter became president, a central operations office was opened in Washington to coordinate all interests including the Carter Coal and Dock Corporation which Carter had organized in the 1930′s. The wharves and docks owned by the company were located at Norfolk, Virginia; Providence, Rhode Island; Boston, Massachusetts and Bridgeport, Connecticut and were considered among the most modern on the eastern seaboard.
George L. Carter died on December 30, 1936 in a Washington, DC ?0 hospital of pneumonia at the age of 79. His body was brought back to his home in Hillsville for a brief service conducted by his brother-in-law, Rev. Doggett. He was buried in a private cemetery located directly to the back of the Carter home in Hillsville. His grave is marked by a plain stone slab bearing only name, dates of birth, and death. He had directed the making of the stone prior to his death. The marker is symbolic of his life–simple and unpretentious.
While Mr. Carter created an empire and amassed huge amounts of money and power, he remained a private person. He shunned publicity to a point of obsession preferring no pictures, no recognitions and no awards for all his accomplishments. He owned a private Pullman but preferred the day coach. He was known for his high moral standards and for his strong sense of ethics. He detested the use of alcohol, tobacco, and had very little respect for unions. He would not hire a female employee to work in his office and he never learned to drive a car.
Mr. Carter was a generous man. Once, during a negotiation, he was asked the difference between fifteen million dollars and twenty million dollars. Mr. Carter hesitated a moment, then replied that he could educate several thousand mountain boys with the difference. One of his favorite charities was the Mountain Mission School in Grundy, Virginia. He gave several acres in order to straighten a road in Wythe County and that now bears the name Carter Memorial Wayside. He and his family made contributions to the Hillsville Christian and Presbyterian Churches. Recently Mrs. James Walter Carter who still lives in New York City made a sizeable contribution to the Carroll County Public Library.
“Old timers” in Carroll County believe Mr. Carter was partial to workers from Carroll and surrounding counties. Almost every family has some member(s) who worked at Coalwood or Caretta, on Mr. Carter’s farms or in other Carter businesses. So many area residents worked for him in West Virginia these people hold a reunion in Hillsville each year.
Following his death, Mayetta continued to live in her sixeen room house in Hillsville until a short period prior to her death on January 10, 1957. George L. left no will of record and his vast estate and extensive holdings went to his son, James Walter. Married to Margaret Woolford of Montgomery, Alabama, the couple had no children, They resided in Williamsburg, Virginia and New York City. With the exception of a brief time during World War II when the mining companies were operated by the Navy, he managed his father’s
business as organized until 1946. Then he sold the Carter Coal Company and its holdings to the Youngstown Sheet and Tube Company, Steel Company of Canada and Inter-Lake Iron Company of Cleveland.26 In 1959 he sold his mother’s home to Carroll County and the building was converted to governmental offices. Other real estate in the area was sold with the exception of forty acres which he donated to the Nature Conservancy along with $100,000 for upkeep. The tract contains the family cemetery and is managed as a wildlife sanctuary known as Mountain Meadows Preserve. It is managed by Mr. Sebert L. Sisson of Hillsville. James Walter Carter died November 13, 1981 at his Hotel Carlyle suite in New York City.
George L. Carter was a native son of the area he helped explore and develop. Through his empire he created thousands of jobs for the people and was heralded in a Kingsport paper as “The greatest industrial developer and leader the southern Appalachian coal section ever produced. Because of his aversion to publicity, little has been written about Mr. Carter; however, because of his contribution to the region, his name and his accomplishments must never be forgotten.