Remembering Oneida's first mayor, Leland Carson
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Leland Gates Carson: 1891-1969
When Oneida was incorporated as a town in 1917, the first man elected to lead the town was the founder of Jellico Grocery Co., Leland Gates Carson.
Born Aug. 29, 1891, Carson was born and raised in Oneida. He was the son of William Henry Carson (1855-1934) and Angeletta Pemberton (1868-1956).
The Carson family had come to Oneida during the first half of the 19th century with John Carson Sr. and Sarah Estes, who settled in the Tunnel Hill area east of town. Leland Carson’s grandfather, James Bailey Carson (1825-1902) married Frankie Elvina Smith, the daughter of Rev. Isaac Smith, the first circuit rider of the Methodist church in Scott County, who founded the Ponderosa area of Oneida.
Leland Carson married Mabel Lee Blevins in 1917. She was the daughter of James P. Blevins (1874-1911) and Orlena F. Davis (1879-1899). She was a second-great-granddaughter of Jonathan Blevins, a prominent early settler in the Big South Fork.
Leland and Mabel had one child: daughter Helen Gates Carson (1918-2009).
After high school, Leland graduated from Maryville College in Maryville, Tenn.
Carson’s business prowess came mostly in Roane County, where he lived much of his adult life, but began in Oneida. He founded Carson Bros., a grocery wholesaler that would later become Jellico Grocery Co.
In 1917, Oneida was granted corporate status by the State of Tennessee on its third attempt. Carson ran for mayor and was elected as the town’s first leader. He served in that capacity for one two-year term before joining the U.S. Army during World War I. He was succeeded as mayor by Granville Kingsley “G.K.” Young, a native of the Burrville community in Morgan County who moved to Oneida as an adult.
Carson served in France in the Quartermaster Corps, then returned to Oneida. He did not return to politics; instead, he focused on growing the grocery business. Jellico Grocery opened facilities in Middlesboro, Ky. in 1920 and in Harriman, Tenn. in 1921.
Carson’s brother-in-law, William Claude Terry Sr., went on to serve as Oneida’s third mayor from 1921 to 1927. Carson’s wife, Mabel, was Terry’s adopted sister. Her mother had died at the young age of 20.
As for Carson, he moved from Oneida to Harriman to manage the new Jellico Grocery location there in the 1920s. His business acumen continued to grow. He was appointed president of First National Bank of Harriman in 1925, and served in that capacity for 15 years. He was named chairman of the board at the bank in 1944, and was named chairman emeritus in 1967. He also owned Cumberland Chevrolet Co., a General Motors dealership in Harriman, for 30 years.
Carson served as commander of American Legion Post No. 26 in Harriman, and as a trustee and elder at First Presbyterian Church of Harriman. He was also a president of the Harriman Rotary Club, where he was a member from 1932 until his death in 1969.
Carson fell ill in 1968 and spent his final months in hospitals in Harriman, Knoxville and Nashville. He was a resident of a Knoxville nursing home when he died on June 12, 1969, at age 77. A funeral was held at Kyker Funeral Home in Harriman, after which his body was returned to his native Oneida for interment at Carson Memorial Park, where his parents were also buried. His wife, Mabel, died in 1975, at age 78. She was also buried at Carson Memorial Park.
Leland and Mabel’s only daughter, Helen, died in 2009, at age 90. She never married. She, too, was buried at Carson Memorial Park — in the adjacent plot that is known as Carson Family Cemetery.
Twenty different people have served as mayor of Oneida through the years. Following William Claude Terry Sr. was Sam A. Bertram, then Inman Terry, Sam A. Blair, C.W. Wright, Arnold Colditz, Archie Newport, J.D. Caldwell, Eugene McDonald, John Lee West, William N. Proctor, Robert Carson, Rodney West, C.L. Strunk, Denzil Pennington, Jack E. Lay, and Lori Phillips-Jones, in that order.
C. Lee Smith was the only person to serve two different stints as mayor, from 1941 to 1947 and from 1949 to 1955. Jack E. Lay was the town’s longest-serving mayor, from 1995 to 2023. Lori Phillips-Jones, the town’s current mayor, is the first female to serve in that capacity. She was elected in 2023.
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◼️ Monday morning: The Daybreaker (news & the week ahead)
◼️ Tuesday: Echoes in Time (stories of our history)
◼️ Wednesday: Threads of Life (obituaries)
◼️ Thursday evening: The Weekender (news & the weekend)
◼️ Friday: Friday Features (beyond the news)
◼️ Sunday: Varsity (a weekly sports recap)