William Edward (Will) Carson (October 8, 1870 – March 25, 1942) was an Irish immigrant who became a prominent Virginia businessman, conservationist and author. As the (unpaid) chairman of the Virginia State Commission on Conservation and Development (a predecessor of the Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation) for about a decade, he worked to foster a tourist economy by initiating Virginia's model historical marker program, as well as by securing land, funding and Civilian Conservation Corps workers; these actions laid the groundwork for state and federal parks in Virginia. Carson served under three Virginia Governors and two U.S. Presidents, but due to political exigencies within the Byrd Organization, he only spoke at the Virginia and national sesquicentennial celebrations and the dedications of Skyline Drive and Colonial National Monument (which became Colonial National Historical Park). The Virginia General Assembly reorganized the agency in early November 1934, requiring a full-time leader, but failing to appropriate a salary, prompting Carson to resign effective January 1, 1935. Thus, although considered one of the founders of Shenandoah National Park, as well as the Virginia state park system, Carson was not publicly acknowledged at those dedications on June 15 and July 3, 1936. He and his wife also donated 63 acres of land which is still a public golf course and park in Front Royal, Virginia, and their former home in Front Royal, Killahevlin, is listed on the National Register for Historic Places.
Early life and education Born in Enniskillen in what became Northern Ireland to the former Anne Lougheedsome secondary sources spell it Lugeed, but his obituary in the Front Royal newspaper gives this spelling and her husband Samuel Carson. Carson had three brothers, including: Adam C. Carson (1868-1941), Charles W. Carson of Woodstock and Dr. Samuel W. Carson (d. 1935). In 1885 the brothers arrived in Norfolk (in the state's southeast corner) following their father, who found business opportunities in opposite corners of the Commonwealth. In 1870, his father had bought land in Warren County (in the state's northwest corner). Relations between this family and another Carson family which included a never-married man also named William Carson who had served in the House of Delegates from Shenandoah County around the War of 1812 and helped found Warren County are unknown. In any event, this Will Carson was educated in Ireland, and began working at his father's lime plant in Virginia in 1888.John F. Horan, Jr., Will Carson and the Virginia Conservation Commission 1926-1934, The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, Vol. 92, No. 4 (1984), p. 392. In 1891, Samuel Carson (Sr.) received a state charter for the Carson Lime Company (which this man ultimately reincorporated as the Riverton Lime Corporation in 1904). Meanwhile this Will Carson received an education in Ireland, then lived with his father and stepmother (Sarah H. Carson) until 1905 at the family home named "Delbrook" in Riverton, until Killahevlin (an elaborate house in the Queen Anne style which he commissioned in connection with his upcoming marriage) was finished.Scrapbook 3 p. 169 He welcomed his nieces Isabella McNeil Carson and Annie Lougheed Carson from Ireland to his Riverton home in 1908.
Personal life Carson married Agnes Holladay McCarthy at the Seventh Street Christian Church in Richmond on May 9, 1906. Her father, William H. McCarthy (1842–1919), a leading fire and marine insurance executive in Richmond, was descended from an early 19th century Irish immigrant merchant named Florence McCarthy (1798–1864), and his gravestone notes his service as a Confederate States Army artilleryman throughout the Civil War and surrender with CSA General R.E. Lee at Appomattox. Her middle name reflected her mother, Louisa Holladay McCarthy (1845–1922). Several maternal ancestors (surname spellings varying in that era) had served in the Virginia General Assembly since burgess Anthony Holliday represented Isle of Wight County for multiple terms beginning in 1693, and Anthony Holladay represented neighboring Nansemond County in 1752–1755.Lyon Gardiner Tyler, Encyclopedia of Virginia Biography (1915), vol. 1 p. 259(available at hathitrust.org). Her grandfather had been named to honor Waller Holliday who represented Spotsylvania County, Virginia beginning in 1819, and a probably never-married relative named Waller Holladay served in the state Senate during this man's career, retiring in 1931.Scrapbook 2 p. 245
The Carson-McCarthy wedding attracted political and social elite from various areas within the Commonwealth. Carson's best man was Winchester attorney Richard Evelyn Byrd (1860–1925), his brother's law partner as well as a member of the Virginia House of Delegates who two years later became that body's Speaker. Congressman Henry D. Flood was a groomsman. The couple had a son, William E. Carson Jr (1909-1925 who died of influenza) and two daughters (Louisa and Virginia) who married and survived their parents.
Career
Businessman In addition to operating the Riverton Lime Company (which in 1935 became Riverton Lime and Stone), in 1908 Carson became chairman of the board of directors of the National Lime Manufacturers Association (which merged late in 1918 with the Hydrated Lime Bureau and became the National Lime Association). Despite unsuccessfully lobbying against future Virginia Governor Westmoreland Davis' second attempt to establish two additional lime grinding plants in 1912, Carson served as the national association's president in 1919.Horan p. 393 In August 1936, during Carson's tour of the lime and cement plants of England, Germany, France and Switzerland, the British Scientific and Industrial Research Society elected him a fellow, recognizing his contributions to ceramics, lime and mortar technology.Scrapbook 3, pp. 128-129
Politician Although his father was a Republican, Carson and his brother A.C. Carson became active in the local Democratic Party. A.C. Carson (sometimes nicknamed "Kit" or with the "Judge" honorific) graduated from the University of Virginia School of Law and in 1893 began reading law with Richard Evelyn Byrd Sr. and by 1902 served in the Philippines with Byrd's son the future explorer Richard E. Byrd, and secured an appointment as a territorial judge in 1904 thru the support of Republican President William Howard Taft and Democratic congressman Henry D. Flood.Horan pp. 392-393 Will Carson chaired the Seventh District Democratic Committee for three decades (from 1910 until 1940). Although considered for several other posts, Carson was appointed by Governor E. Lee Trinkle to the Hampton Roads Port Commission (on the opposite end of the state) in 1923, and served until his State Commission on Conservation and Development appointment in 1926 discussed below. Meanwhile, in 1925, Carson ran the successful gubernatorial campaign of Harry Flood Byrd.
State Commission on Conservation and Development Shortly after taking office on January 1, 1926, Governor Byrd received legislative approval and created the State Commission on Conservation and Development in March 1926 (consolidating the Water Power and Development Commission with the geological and forestry offices). Carson became the new agency's first Chairman, for which he received no pay. The vice-chairman was Richmond stockbroker Coleman Wortham, and other members included bankers E. Griffith Dodson of Norfolk and Thomas L. Farrar of Charlottesville, newspaperman Junius P. Fishburn of Roanoke, Rufus G. Roberts of Culpeper and Lee Long of Dante in far southwest Virginia.Horan p. 395inside page of "Historic Shrines of Virginia"
By 1927, Carson and his assistant H.J. Eckenrode initiated a historical highway marker program. Governor Byrd later said he and Carson had been inspired during a campaign stop by a sign at the Cuckoo Tavern in Louisa County marking Jack Jouett's ride during the Revolutionary War.Horan p403 and note By 1931, the VDC had erected more than a thousand historical markers, and became a model for other states.Scrapbook 1, pp. 183-188Scrapbook 2, pp. 123-128 and loose materials
Traveling across Virginia as well as taping radio addresses, Carson advocated for the creation of both federal and state parks, to spur tourism from its historic and natural resources, thus creating jobs as well. Governor Byrd envisioned development that would attract industry and benefit the state, while Carson believed Virginia's natural and historic resources would lure both tourists and businesses. Carson envisioned parks in all the state's regions, from its historic Tidewater region to Shenandoah National Park in the Appalachian mountains.Scrapbook 1, pp. 219-243 VDC crews also restored George Washington's mill near Mount Vernon, and Wakefield. Initially, the VDC (as well as government entities from West Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee and Arkansas) also opposed Appalachian Power Company's proposed damming of the New River in Pulaski County near Radford, and so joined in a lawsuit against the Federal Power Commission, arguing that the private entity was usurping governmental powers, and that the federal commission was usurping state's rights. However, that project was ultimately completed, and became Claytor Lake State Park in 1939.Carson Scrapbook 2, pp. 205-213
Federal parks Creation of a national park on the East Coast had been advocated since 1911 or earlier, with various local politicians in various areas of the Commonwealth. Although sites in Virginia's Historic Triangle would first be consolidated with federal imprimatur early in Carson's tenure with the Conservation and Development, his major effort would prove closer to his home, with creation of Shenandoah National Park shortly after his tenure ended. In 1928 (a federal but not state election year), the Democratic controlled Virginia legislature passed a mass condemnation act (drafted by Adam C. Carson) to create the long-planned Shenandoah National Park. The following year, Will Carson as head of the Conservation and Development Commission purchased fishing rights for more than 10,000 acres along the Rapidan River. Virginia planned to pay for the condemned land in abbreviated proceedings, then donate it to create the proposed national park, citing its proximity to the national capital and other East Coast cities, as well as increased tourism and revenue from national parks already created in the western United States.
Even before his inaugulation, Carson hosted President Herbert Hoover (elected in 1928 and an enthusiastic fly fisherman), with his wife and retinue in Criglersville. The Presidential party rode horses up the Rapidan River to a fishing camp, where Hoover later celebrated his 55th birthday.Scrapbook 1, pp. 255-295 Although Virginians offered to give Hoover what is now known as Rapidan Camp (but sometimes as Camp Hoover), the President used his own funds to buy the land for $1,045 (at the going rate of $5 per acre), and building materials for $22,719. The Marine Corps provided construction labor for drainage, electricity and telephone lines as a "military exercise" by September 1929.https://www.whitehousehistory.org/hoovers-retreat-rapidan-camp