George C. Peery

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

Early years

George Peery attended the common schools and then Emory and Henry College. Between 1894 and 1896 he was even then the main teacher at Tazewell High School. After studying law at Washington and Lee University in Lexington, he was admitted to the bar in 1897. Then he started in Tazewell to work in his new profession. In 1899 he was hired as a lawyer from the Virginia Iron, Coal & Coke Company. In the meantime, he moved to Wise, but later returned back to Tazewell. Peery was then a board member of several other companies in Virginia. During World War II, he was responsible for managing the food in Tazewell County.

Political rise

Peery was a member of the Democratic Party, whose Democratic National Convention he attended between 1920 and 1924 as a delegate. Between 4 March 1923 and 3 March 1929, he represented his country for three parliamentary terms as a delegate in the U.S. Congress. There he was, however, not represented on any committee. After the end of his time in the federal capital Washington Peery again worked as a lawyer and engaged in animal husbandry. In 1928 he was chairman of his party in Virginia for a short time. Between 1929 and 1933, Perry was also a member of the Virginia State Corporation.

Governor of Virginia

In 1934, George Peery was elected with the help of the political machinery of U.S. Senator Harry F. Byrd to the new governor of his state. He began his four-year term on 17 January 1934. During his tenure, he founded after the lifting of Prohibition ban on the federal level a committee composed of three members Control to monitor the handling of alcoholic beverages. A similar Commission monitored milk production. In addition, at that time was also a committee that dealt with the claims of the unemployed. This happened against the backdrop of the global economic crisis in the early 1930s, by which the state of Virginia now gradually recovering.

Further CV

After the end of his governorship is devoted Peery again livestock and other private affairs. He was curator of the Washington and Lee University and Hollins College. George Peery died in October 1952. Together with his wife Nannie Bane Gillespie he had three children.