Charles McClung McGhee | |
|---|---|
 Portrait from Notable Men of Tennessee (1905) | |
| Born | January 23, 1828 Monroe County, Tennessee, United States |
| Died | May 5, 1907 (aged 79) Knoxville, Tennessee, United States |
| Resting place | Old Gray Cemetery Knoxville, Tennessee |
| Occupation | Business |
| Spouses |
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| Children | 6[1] |
| Parent(s) | John McGhee and Betsey McClung |
| Relatives | James White (great-grandfather) Charles McClung (grandfather) George W. Baxter (son-in-law) Lawrence Tyson (son-in-law) Charles McGhee Tyson (grandson) |
Charles McClung McGhee (January 23, 1828 – May 5, 1907) was an American industrialist and financier, active primarily in Knoxville, Tennessee. 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 East Tennessee in the 1870s and 1880s. His position with the railroad also gave him access to the 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.[2]
Historian Lucile Deaderick wrote that "perhaps more than anyone else," McGhee "brought about and symbolized Knoxville which developed in the last third of the nineteenth century."[3] A descendant of Knoxville's founders, McGhee established a pork packing operation during the Civil War.[4] 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.
McGhee 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).[4]
- ^ Zella Armstrong, Janie Preston Collup French, Notable Southern Families Volume 1 (Chattanooga, Tenn.: Lookout Publishing Company, 1918), pp. 148–151.
- ^ East Tennessee Historical Society, Mary Rothrock (ed.), The French Broad-Holston Country: A History of Knox County, Tennessee (Knoxville, Tenn.: The Society, 1972), p. 448.
- ^ East Tennessee Historical Society, Lucile Deaderick (ed.), Heart of the Valley: A History of Knoxville, Tennessee (Knoxville, Tenn.: East Tennessee Historical Society, 1976), p. 42.
- ^ a b East Tennessee Historical Society, Lucile Deaderick (ed.), Heart of the Valley: A History of Knoxville, Tennessee (Knoxville, Tenn.: East Tennessee Historical Society, 1976), pp. 24–27, 42–45.