George C. Peery

George C. Peery

George Campbell Peery (born October 28, 1873 in Cedar Bluff , Tazewell County , Virginia , † October 14, 1952 in Richlands , Virginia) was an American politician and governor of the state of Virginia from 1934 to 1938 . Between 1923 and 1929 he represented his state in the US House of Representatives .

Early years

George Peery attended the public schools in his home country and then Emory and Henry College . Between 1894 and 1896 he was himself the principal teacher at Tazewell High School . After studying law at Washington and Lee University in Lexington , he was admitted to the bar in 1897. He then started to work in his new profession in Tazewell . In 1899 he was hired as a lawyer by the Virginia Iron, Coal & Coke Company . In the meantime he moved to Wise , but later returned to Tazewell. Peery then became a board member of several other Virginia firms. During World War I he was responsible for the food administration in Tazewell County.

Political rise

Peery became a member of the Democratic Party , whose Democratic National Conventions he attended in 1920 and 1924 as a delegate. Between March 4, 1923 and March 3, 1929, he represented his state for three legislative terms as a member of the US Congress . There he was not represented on any committee. After his time in the federal capital Washington , Peery worked again as a lawyer and dealt with the ranching of cattle. In 1928 he was briefly chairman of his party in Virginia. Between 1929 and 1933, Peery was also a member of the Virginia State Corporation .

Governor of Virginia

In 1934, through the political machinery of US Senator Harry F. Byrd , George Peery was elected as the new governor of his state. He began his four-year term on January 17, 1934. During his tenure, after the ban on prohibition was lifted at the federal level, he founded a three-member control committee to monitor the handling of alcoholic beverages. A similar commission monitored milk production. In addition, a committee was established at that time to deal with the claims of the unemployed. This happened against the background of the Great Depression in the early 1930s, from which the state of Virginia was now gradually recovering.

Another résumé

After the end of his governorship, Peery returned to ranching and other private matters. He was still a curator at Washington and Lee University and Hollins College . George Peery died in October 1952. He had three children with his wife, Nannie Bane Gillespie.

Web links

• George C. Peery at the National Governors Association (English)
• George C. Peery in the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress (English)
• George C. Peery in the database of Find a Grave (English)