Charles McClung McGhee
Encyclopedia
Charles McClung McGhee was an American railroad tycoon
and financier, active primarily in Knoxville, Tennessee
, in the latter half of the nineteenth century. As director of the East Tennessee, Virginia and Georgia Railway (ETV&G), McGhee was responsible for much of the railroad construction that took place in the East Tennessee area in the 1870s and 1880s. His position with the railroad also gave him access to northern capital markets, which he used to help finance dozens of companies in and around Knoxville. In 1885, he established the Lawson McGhee Library
, which was the basis of Knox County's
public library system.
Historian Lucile Deaderick wrote that, "perhaps more than anyone else," McGhee "brought about and symbolized the Knoxville which developed in the last third of the nineteenth century." A descendant of Knoxville's founders, McGhee established a pork packing operation during the Civil War
. After the war, he formed a syndicate that bought and merged two railroads into the ETV&G, gained control of several other railroads, and financed a railroad construction boom that connected Knoxville to most of the eastern United States. He established one of Knoxville's first suburbs, McGhee's Addition (now Mechanicsville
), in the late 1860s, and cofounded Knoxville Woolen Mills in 1884, at the time the city's largest employer. He also helped finance the Roane Iron Company (which established Rockwood
) and cofounded the Lenoir City Company (which established Lenoir City
).
in Monroe County, Tennessee, the youngest son of John McGhee and Elizabeth "Betsy" McClung McGhee. His father was a wealthy planter of Scots-Irish
descent who owned roughly 15000 acres (6,070.3 ha) of land in the Little Tennessee Valley
. His mother was a daughter of surveyor Charles McClung
, who platted Knoxville in the early 1790s, and a granddaughter of Knoxville's founder, James White
. McGhee spent much of his childhood moving back and forth between his father's plantation and Knoxville, where he spent a great deal of time with his mother's relatives. In 1846, he graduated from East Tennessee University
. Upon his father's death, he and his brother, Barclay, inherited the family's plantation.
Around 1860, McGhee relocated permanently to Knoxville, where he established a thriving pork packing plant on Gay Street
. At the outbreak of the Civil War, McGhee pledged his support for the Confederacy
, and agreed to supply the Confederate Army with bacon and other pork products. He was given the rank of colonel
on the army's commissary staff, and for the rest of his life he was often referred to as "Colonel McGhee." Confederate diarist Ellen Renshaw House wrote that during the Union Army
's occupation of Knoxville in 1863, McGhee gave her scarce fabric with which she and her friends sewed blankets for Confederate prisoners of war. Nevertheless, McGhee took the Oath of Allegiance and agreed to support the Union Army in 1864, and quickly mended ties with the city's Unionists.
and the Knoxville and Kentucky Railroad. McGhee financed the extension of the latter to L&N lines in Ohio in 1883.
Using his access to northern capital markets, McGhee financed a number of business ventures in the 1870s and 1880s, often in partnership with his long-time associate, Edward J. Sanford
. McGhee financed the creation of the Knoxville Street Rail Company in 1875, and in the early 1880s he secured $125,000 for the Roane Iron Company, which used the money to finance a massive steel-production operation. In 1884, McGhee and Sanford cofounded the Knoxville Woolen Mills, which by 1900 included a 4.5 acres (1.8 ha) plant near Mechanicsville and employed 600 workers. In 1889, McGhee and Sanford formed the Lenoir City Company and established Lenoir City, Tennessee, which they hoped would grow into a manufacturing mecca.
During the 1880s, McGhee and Sanford gained control of the Coal Creek Mining and Manufacturing Company, which operated coal mines in eastern Anderson County
. During the Coal Creek War
of 1891–1892, McGhee and Sanford took a hardline stance against the miners, who were striking over the company's use of convict labor. In letters to one another, McGhee and Sanford consistently complained about the state's ineffectiveness in handling the uprising.
In the late 1860s, McGhee established a suburb in northwestern Knoxville known as "McGhee's Addition" for the city's growing working and middle classes. Many of this suburb's early residents worked at the nearby Knoxville Woolen Mills, or at the Knoxville Iron Company
(formed by McGhee's future Roane Iron associate, Hiram Chamberlain). Now known as Mechanicsville, this neighborhood was annexed by Knoxville in 1883.
marking the McGhee family plot is among the tallest monuments in the cemetery.
McGhee's Knoxville mansion, built in 1872 at the corner of Locust Street and Union Avenue, was one of the first structures in the city designed by Joseph Baumann
, whose architectural firm later designed many of the city's most prominent buildings. The mansion has been drastically modified to serve as a Masonic temple. McGhee's son-in-law, Lawrence Tyson
, was a World War I
general and United States senator. McGhee Tyson Airport
is named for McGhee's grandson (Tyson's son), World War I
pilot Charles McGhee Tyson (1889–1918).
Business magnate
A business magnate, sometimes referred to as a capitalist, czar, mogul, tycoon, baron, oligarch, or industrialist, is an informal term used to refer to an entrepreneur who has reached prominence and derived a notable amount of wealth from a particular industry .-Etymology:The word magnate itself...
and financier, active primarily in Knoxville, Tennessee
Knoxville, Tennessee
Founded in 1786, Knoxville is the third-largest city in the U.S. state of Tennessee, U.S.A., behind Memphis and Nashville, and is the county seat of Knox County. It is the largest city in East Tennessee, and the second-largest city in the Appalachia region...
, in the latter half of the nineteenth century. As director of the East Tennessee, Virginia and Georgia Railway (ETV&G), McGhee was responsible for much of the railroad construction that took place in the East Tennessee area in the 1870s and 1880s. His position with the railroad also gave him access to northern capital markets, which he used to help finance dozens of companies in and around Knoxville. In 1885, he established the Lawson McGhee Library
Lawson McGhee Public Library
The Lawson McGhee Public Library is the main library for Knoxville, Tennessee. It is located at 500 West Church Avenue in downtown Knoxville. The Beck Cultural Exchange Center, the East Tennessee Historical Center and numerous library branches are also associated with the Lawson McGhee Public...
, which was the basis of Knox County's
Knox County, Tennessee
Knox County is a county in the U.S. state of Tennessee. Its 2007 population was estimated at 423,874 by the United States Census Bureau. Its county seat is Knoxville, as it has been since the creation of the county. The county is at the geographical center of the Great Valley of East Tennessee...
public library system.
Historian Lucile Deaderick wrote that, "perhaps more than anyone else," McGhee "brought about and symbolized the Knoxville which developed in the last third of the nineteenth century." A descendant of Knoxville's founders, McGhee established a pork packing operation during the Civil War
American Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
. After the war, he formed a syndicate that bought and merged two railroads into the ETV&G, gained control of several other railroads, and financed a railroad construction boom that connected Knoxville to most of the eastern United States. He established one of Knoxville's first suburbs, McGhee's Addition (now Mechanicsville
Mechanicsville, Knoxville
Mechanicsville is a neighborhood in Knoxville, Tennessee, located northwest of the city's downtown area. One of the city's oldest neighborhoods, Mechanicsville was established in the late 1860s for skilled laborers working in the many factories that sprang up along Knoxville's periphery...
), in the late 1860s, and cofounded Knoxville Woolen Mills in 1884, at the time the city's largest employer. He also helped finance the Roane Iron Company (which established Rockwood
Rockwood, Tennessee
Rockwood is a city in Roane County, Tennessee, United States. Its population was 5,774 at the 2000 census. It is included in the Harriman, Tennessee Micropolitan Statistical Area.-Geography:...
) and cofounded the Lenoir City Company (which established Lenoir City
Lenoir City, Tennessee
Lenoir City is a city in Loudon County, Tennessee, United States. Its population was 8,642 at the 2010 census. It is included in the Knoxville Metropolitan Area....
).
Early life
McGhee was born near modern VonoreVonore, Tennessee
Vonore is a town in Blount and Monroe counties in the U.S. state of Tennessee. The population was 1,162 as of the 2000 census.-Geography:Vonore is located at ....
in Monroe County, Tennessee, the youngest son of John McGhee and Elizabeth "Betsy" McClung McGhee. His father was a wealthy planter of Scots-Irish
Scots-Irish American
Scotch-Irish Americans are an estimated 250,000 Presbyterian and other Protestant dissenters from the Irish province of Ulster who immigrated to North America primarily during the colonial era and their descendants. Some scholars also include the 150,000 Ulster Protestants who immigrated to...
descent who owned roughly 15000 acres (6,070.3 ha) of land in the Little Tennessee Valley
Little Tennessee River
The Little Tennessee River is a tributary of the Tennessee River, approximately 135 miles long, in the Appalachian Mountains in the southeastern United States.-Geography:...
. His mother was a daughter of surveyor Charles McClung
Charles McClung
Charles McClung was an American pioneer, politician, and surveyor best known for drawing up the original plat of Knoxville, Tennessee, in 1791. While Knoxville has since expanded to many times its original size, the city's downtown area still roughly follows McClung's 1791 grid...
, who platted Knoxville in the early 1790s, and a granddaughter of Knoxville's founder, James White
James White (general)
James White was an American pioneer and soldier who founded Knoxville, Tennessee, in the early 1790s. Born in Rowan County, North Carolina, White served as a captain in the county's militia during the American Revolutionary War...
. McGhee spent much of his childhood moving back and forth between his father's plantation and Knoxville, where he spent a great deal of time with his mother's relatives. In 1846, he graduated from East Tennessee University
University of Tennessee
The University of Tennessee is a public land-grant university headquartered at Knoxville, Tennessee, United States...
. Upon his father's death, he and his brother, Barclay, inherited the family's plantation.
Around 1860, McGhee relocated permanently to Knoxville, where he established a thriving pork packing plant on Gay Street
Gay Street (Knoxville)
Gay Street is a street in Knoxville, Tennessee, USA, that traverses the heart of the city's downtown area. Since its development in the 1790s, Gay Street has served as the city's principal financial and commercial thoroughfare, and has played a primary role in the city's historical and cultural...
. At the outbreak of the Civil War, McGhee pledged his support for the Confederacy
Confederate States of America
The Confederate States of America was a government set up from 1861 to 1865 by 11 Southern slave states of the United States of America that had declared their secession from the U.S...
, and agreed to supply the Confederate Army with bacon and other pork products. He was given the rank of colonel
Colonel
Colonel , abbreviated Col or COL, is a military rank of a senior commissioned officer. It or a corresponding rank exists in most armies and in many air forces; the naval equivalent rank is generally "Captain". It is also used in some police forces and other paramilitary rank structures...
on the army's commissary staff, and for the rest of his life he was often referred to as "Colonel McGhee." Confederate diarist Ellen Renshaw House wrote that during the Union Army
Union Army
The Union Army was the land force that fought for the Union during the American Civil War. It was also known as the Federal Army, the U.S. Army, the Northern Army and the National Army...
's occupation of Knoxville in 1863, McGhee gave her scarce fabric with which she and her friends sewed blankets for Confederate prisoners of war. Nevertheless, McGhee took the Oath of Allegiance and agreed to support the Union Army in 1864, and quickly mended ties with the city's Unionists.
Railroads, banking, and other business interests
By the end of the war, McGhee had become one of Knoxville's leading businessmen. He helped establish People's Bank in 1865, and was appointed the bank's president the following year. Around this time, McGhee and several associates organized a syndicate which purchased Knoxville's two main rail lines, the East Tennessee and Virginia Railroad and the East Tennessee and Georgia Railroad, and in 1869 merged the two into the ETV&G. As director of this railroad, McGhee became acquainted with numerous New York financiers, through which he gained funding for an acquisition of the Memphis and Charleston RailroadMemphis and Charleston Railroad
The Memphis and Charleston Railroad, completed in 1857, was the first railroad in the United States to link the Atlantic Ocean with the Mississippi River. Chartered in 1846 the railroad ran from Memphis, Tennessee to Stevenson, Alabama through the towns of Corinth, Mississippi and Huntsville,...
and the Knoxville and Kentucky Railroad. McGhee financed the extension of the latter to L&N lines in Ohio in 1883.
Using his access to northern capital markets, McGhee financed a number of business ventures in the 1870s and 1880s, often in partnership with his long-time associate, Edward J. Sanford
Edward J. Sanford
Edward Jackson Sanford was an American manufacturing tycoon and financier, active primarily in Knoxville, Tennessee, in the late 19th century...
. McGhee financed the creation of the Knoxville Street Rail Company in 1875, and in the early 1880s he secured $125,000 for the Roane Iron Company, which used the money to finance a massive steel-production operation. In 1884, McGhee and Sanford cofounded the Knoxville Woolen Mills, which by 1900 included a 4.5 acres (1.8 ha) plant near Mechanicsville and employed 600 workers. In 1889, McGhee and Sanford formed the Lenoir City Company and established Lenoir City, Tennessee, which they hoped would grow into a manufacturing mecca.
During the 1880s, McGhee and Sanford gained control of the Coal Creek Mining and Manufacturing Company, which operated coal mines in eastern Anderson County
Anderson County, Tennessee
Anderson County is a U.S. county located in the U.S. state of Tennessee. As of the 2010 census, its population is 75,129. Its county seat is Clinton.It is included in the Knoxville, Tennessee, Metropolitan Statistical Area.-Geography:...
. During the Coal Creek War
Coal Creek War
The Coal Creek War was an armed labor uprising that took place primarily in Anderson County, in the American state of Tennessee, in the early 1890s. The struggle began in 1891 when coal mine owners in the Coal Creek watershed attempted to replace free coal miners with convicts leased out by the...
of 1891–1892, McGhee and Sanford took a hardline stance against the miners, who were striking over the company's use of convict labor. In letters to one another, McGhee and Sanford consistently complained about the state's ineffectiveness in handling the uprising.
In the late 1860s, McGhee established a suburb in northwestern Knoxville known as "McGhee's Addition" for the city's growing working and middle classes. Many of this suburb's early residents worked at the nearby Knoxville Woolen Mills, or at the Knoxville Iron Company
Knoxville Iron Company
The Knoxville Iron Company was an iron production and coal mining company that operated primarily in Knoxville, Tennessee, USA, and its vicinity, in the late 19th and 20th centuries. The company was Knoxville's first major post-Civil War manufacturing firm, and played a key role in bringing heavy...
(formed by McGhee's future Roane Iron associate, Hiram Chamberlain). Now known as Mechanicsville, this neighborhood was annexed by Knoxville in 1883.
Death
In 1894, McGhee helped oversee the struggling East Tennessee, Virginia and Georgia Railway's transition into the Southern Railway, but retired shortly afterward. He spent his later years travelling back and forth between his houses in Florida, Knoxville, and New York. On May 5, 1907, McGhee died of pneumonia, and was interred in Old Gray Cemetery. The obeliskObelisk
An obelisk is a tall, four-sided, narrow tapering monument which ends in a pyramid-like shape at the top, and is said to resemble a petrified ray of the sun-disk. A pair of obelisks usually stood in front of a pylon...
marking the McGhee family plot is among the tallest monuments in the cemetery.
Legacy
McGhee was a well-known philanthropist in Knoxville in his later years. In 1875, he helped secure funding for Knoxville's St. John's Orphanage, which stood on Linden Street. In 1885, McGhee donated $50,000 for the establishment of the Lawson McGhee Library. Now part of the Knox County Public Library system, the building was named for McGhee's daughter, May Lawson McGhee, who had died suddenly in 1883. McGhee organized the library building so that its first floor could be rented out as commercial space and provide the library with steady income.McGhee's Knoxville mansion, built in 1872 at the corner of Locust Street and Union Avenue, was one of the first structures in the city designed by Joseph Baumann
Baumann family (architects)
The Baumann family was a family of American architects who practiced in Knoxville, Tennessee, and the surrounding region, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It included Joseph F. Baumann , his brother, Albert B. Baumann, Sr. , and Albert's son, Albert B. Baumann, Jr....
, whose architectural firm later designed many of the city's most prominent buildings. The mansion has been drastically modified to serve as a Masonic temple. McGhee's son-in-law, Lawrence Tyson
Lawrence Tyson
Lawrence Davis Tyson was an American general, politician and textile manufacturer, operating primarily out of Knoxville, Tennessee, during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He commanded the 59th Brigade of the 30th Infantry during World War I, and served as a Democratic United States...
, was a World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
general and United States senator. McGhee Tyson Airport
McGhee Tyson Airport
-Top Destinations:-Accidents and incidents:* On 06 August, 1962, an American Airlines Lockheed L-188 Electra veered off the runway on landing, striking the raised edge of an under-construction taxiway with the landing gear, causing it to collapse...
is named for McGhee's grandson (Tyson's son), World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
pilot Charles McGhee Tyson (1889–1918).