Carter Legacy

George L. Carter, called the 'Last Empire Builder' in his Washington Post obituary, made lasting contributions to the Appalachian region in terms of his iron, railroad, and coal empires, but his pivotal role in the founding of a normal school in Johnson City, TN may have been his most crowning achievement. A self-taught entrepreneur, Carter saw the value in education but, unlike his more well-known contemporaries such as Vanderbilt, Duke, and Stanford, Carter helped establish a public institution that would neither bear his name nor be under his control. A general education law passed by the Tennessee General Assembly in 1909 provided the opportunity for the founding of three normal schools in each of the state's divisions - east, middle, and west. Later that same year, Johnson City community leaders pushed the City Council and the Washington County Court to post bond issues totaling $150,000 in an effort to bolster the city's bid for the east region normal school. In September 1909, Governor Malcolm R. Patterson and a delegation of the State Board of Education visited the city and were offered a pair of properties to choose from - one backed by Carter and another provided by Carter's local Carnegie rivals. The Nashville delegation returned to the capitol without making a commitment to either contingent, but announced in December that Johnson City would be the host city of the eastern region normal school. The delegation returned to Johnson City in early 1910 to make a final decision on the location of the new normal school. After a tour of the larger Carnegie property seemed to sway the delegation's favor, Carter coerced Governor Patterson to give his property one more review. Carter employed a team of workers to clear a road to the top of a wooded summit overlooking his property overnight and purchased additional land from a neighbor the next morning just before the delegation arrived. Emboldened with 120 acres and his personal promise of $100,000, Carter tipped the scales in his favor and won the bid for the East Tennessee Normal School which later evolved into East Tennessee State University.