Carnegie Estate (Cumberland Island, Ga.)

Lucy C. Carnegie's death Jan. 16, 1916, brought the end to an era on Cumberland Island. Within weeks William E. Page, the manager, was assuring her sons, Thomas Morrison Carnegie, Jr., and Andrew Carnegie II, that he was gradually letting employees go, closing up buildings, and ending functions that had been part of island life for decades. The Carnegie children, all adults with lives of their own away from Dungeness, were obviously interested in settling the estate and carrying out the complex terms of Lucy C. Carnegie's will. In addition, they had all the regular business connected to the Carnegie Steel Company and the Carnegie Office Building. To do this, they hired a number of legal firms and lawyers in different states.

Page, with the assistance of auditor Fred E. Rankin of Jacksonville, FL, continued to keep accounts of the Carnegie Estate of Cumberland Island and for the settlement of Lucy C. Carnegie's estate. Although there are intimations that Morris and Andrew were not always entirely happy with Page's handling of these matters, he was best situated to do it and he had faithfully performed these duties for many years, sometimes to the disadvantage of his personal life. That Page was more than a manager is documented by his personal involvement in Andrew and Morris's investment of Estate funds; his being made executor of George L. Carnegie's estate after the latter's death in 1921; and the financial and individual responsibility the Carnegie family took for Mrs. Page's illnesses.

A severe drop in daily Estate business records for this period suggests that either Page kept a minimum of paperwork for the diminished workload or that records were later destroyed. Certainly William E. Page was in poor health himself. He died almost without warning on Sept. 11, 1922, at the age of sixty.