Background
Tyson was born on July 4, 1861, on the farm of his parents, Richard Lawrence Tyson and Margaret Turnage, near Greenville in Pitt County, North Carolina near the Tar River in the Tidewater region.
Tyson was born on July 4, 1861, on the farm of his parents, Richard Lawrence Tyson and Margaret Turnage, near Greenville in Pitt County, North Carolina near the Tar River in the Tidewater region.
He graduated from the Greenville Academy, and initially worked as a clerk in Salisbury. In 1878, he scored the highest in his region on a competitive entrance exam for the United States Military Academy at West Point, and was admitted the following year. He graduates in 1883.
He also enrolled in the university's law school, from which he graduated in 1894.
Tyson was commissioned as a second lieutenant and took part in the Apache Wars against a Geronimo-led faction of Apaches in the West.
From 1891 to 1895, by appointment of the War Department, he was professor of military science in the University of Tennessee at Knoxville.
In April 1896 he resigned his commission in the army and entered on the practice of law in Knoxville. Two years later, during the war with Spain, he was appointed colonel of the 6th United States Volunteer Infantry and served in Puerto Rico; in 1899, after peace was declared, he was for some months military governor of the north-central portion of that island.
He was mustered out of the service, May 15, 1899. Resuming practice in Knoxville, he was elected to the House of Representatives of the Tennessee General Assembly of 1903, and was chosen speaker; he was delegate-at-large to the Democratic National Convention of 1908; and in 1913 was an unsuccessful candidate for the United States senatorship.
He served for a number of years as brigadier-general and inspector-general of the Tennessee National Guard.
When the United States entered the World War, he was placed by the governor in command of the Tennessee National Guard but in August 1917 was appointed by President Wilson brigadier-general, National Army, and assigned to the 59th Brigade of the 30th Division, at Camp Sevier, S. C. His brigade of 8, 000 men, made up in large part of soldiers from Tennessee, embarked for France on May 10, 1918, and in July was sent to join the British forces in Belgium. It was in almost continuous action from July 5 to October 20, 1918, suffering losses of some 3, 000 in killed and wounded.
Its signal achievement was its participation in the breaking of the Hindenburg Line: "The 59th brigade went through the line at St. Quentin tunnel, advancing further to Bellicourt and neighboring towns. This was accomplished in three days of terrific fighting".
Returning to his home in Knoxville, he purchased and became publisher of the Knoxville Sentinel. In 1920 he was endorsed by the state Democratic convention for the vice-presidential nomination, but in the Democratic National Convention he withdrew his name and seconded the nomination of Franklin D. Roosevelt.
Nominated by a primary election in 1924, he won election as United States senator for the term beginning in 1925. In the Senate he advocated adherence to the World Court and was joint author of the Tyson-Fitzgerald Bill, which gave full retirement compensation to disabled emergency officers of the United States in the World War. In 1927 he was a delegate to the conference of the Interparliamentary Union held in Paris. He was interested in the larger industrial concerns of his city and region, was president of coal companies and textile mills. With his wife he gave Tyson Park to the city of Knoxville. He died on August 24, 1929 in Philadelphia.
Tyson subsequently received the Distinguished Service Medal. In 1927, Lawrence and Bettie Tyson had donated the land for what is now Tyson Park, as well as land for an airstrip (originally in West Knoxville), to the City of Knoxville, asking in return that the city name the airstrip for their son, Charles McGhee Tyson. McGhee Tyson Airport has since been moved to Blount County. Tyson Junior High School, which operated in Knoxville from 1935 until 1986, was named in Lawrence Tyson's honor. Camp Tyson, the World War II U. S. Army training post near Paris, Tennessee was named for him. Tyson's home on Volunteer Boulevard, which was remodeled by noted architect George Franklin Barber in 1907, is now used as the University of Tennessee's Tyson Alumni House. In 2012, the house was listed on the National Register of Historic Places as the General Lawrence D. Tyson House.
In 1923 was president of the American Cotton Manufacturers' Association
In 1886, Tyson married Bettie Humes McGhee, the daughter of wealthy Knoxville railroad baron Charles McClung McGhee (1828–1907). His only son died in the World War.
In July 2007, Drew Gilpin Faust, a professor of history, college administrator and a great-granddaughter of Lawrence D. and Bettie Tyson, became Harvard University's 28th president. Her parents were McGhee Tyson and Catherine (Mellick) Gilpin. Her paternal grandmother was Isabella (Tyson) Gilpin, Lawrence and Bettie's daughter.
