Little Known Facts about Bristol’s Past He built railroads, developed enormous coal mines, owned banks, flour mills and vast amounts of real estate, established new cities and founded the Bristol Herald-Courier. But chances are you’ve never heard of George L. Carter, who once owned one-fourth of all the property in Bristol. Carter moved his Virginia Iron, Coal & Coke Co. to Bristol around 1900, igniting dreams of a great industrial city. His first offices were in two rooms of a building at State and Moore Streets but Carter’s businesses soon occupied nearly every available space in town as he developed the rich Clinchfield coal fields, started construction of the Clinchfield Railroad and expanded into numerous other ventures. Bristol leaders, however, never really accepted the eccentric ‘outsider’ from Carroll County, Virginia and Carter felt that some unfairly inflated the prices of real estate he was interested in. It was a crushing blow to Bristol when he moved his operations to Johnson City – almost overnight - in 1906. From there, Carter completed the railroad, established modern-day Kingsport and donated land for the Teachers’ College that became ETSU. In a biography of Carter, historian Ray Stahl notes, “His decision to lay the Clinchfield line (through Kingsport) allowed him to vent some spite on those Bristol businessmen who had irritated him once too often. He had the ability to balance revenge with good business sense. Modern Kingsport, which might never have existed, was born; Johnson City grew to take precedence in the Tri-Cities; and Bristol never became a new Pittsburgh.”
Posted on: Sat, 11 Oct 2014 09:49:40 +0000
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