Appalachian Figures Series – The Story of Conley E. Greear of Scott, Virginia
Conley Erwin Greear’s life began in the ridges and valleys of Scott County, Virginia, on March 2, 1887. The official history of the Virginia House of Delegates gives his birthplace as Wood, a Scott County community near Fort Blackmore, and records the outline of a life that carried him from a mountain settlement to a professional office, a business block in St. Paul, and finally to the floor of the Virginia House of Delegates.
Greear belonged to a generation of Appalachian professionals who often filled more than one role at once. In small towns and rural counties, a dentist might also be a landlord, a lodge officer, a town councilman, a farm owner, and a political candidate. His public record shows him moving through all of those worlds. He was remembered chiefly as Dr. C. E. Greear, a dentist, but his life also tells a broader story about civic life in southwestern Virginia during the first half of the twentieth century.
His education set him apart early. The Virginia House biography lists Emory & Henry College and the Medical College of Virginia, where he earned a D.D.S. A contemporary Richmond newspaper item from May 1910 also places Conley Erwin Greear of Woods among the Medical College graduates. In a mountain county where higher education was still beyond the reach of many families, that credential carried weight. It gave Greear a profession, but it also gave him standing in the courthouse towns, railroad towns, churches, lodges, and political gatherings of the region.
Big Stone Gap and the Beginning of a Practice
After finishing dental school, Greear entered practice in the coalfield towns of southwestern Virginia. Newspaper advertisements in the Big Stone Gap Post in 1911, 1912, and 1914 show C. E. Greear, dentist, offering his services in Big Stone Gap. Those small notices are easy to overlook, but they are some of the clearest early traces of his working life.
Big Stone Gap was not just another town on the map. In the early twentieth century it stood near the heart of a growing industrial region shaped by coal, railroads, timber, law offices, banks, hotels, and professional men who served the people drawn into that new economy. Greear’s dental advertisements place him in that world soon after graduation. They show him beginning the steady professional career that would later follow him back toward Scott County.
Dentistry in that period was often personal, local, and practical. Patients did not think of a dentist as a distant specialist. They knew him by name, saw him on the street, met him in church or lodge meetings, and heard his opinions on town matters. Greear’s later civic and political career makes more sense when seen through that kind of daily contact. His profession put him face to face with families from the mountains, farms, and coal towns of the region.
Building on Broad Street in St. Paul
By the middle of the 1910s, Greear’s story had shifted toward St. Paul in Wise County. Local history from St. Paul records that Dr. Conley Greear, a 1910 graduate of the Medical College of Virginia’s School of Dentistry from Wood near Fort Blackmore, bought the former Third Avenue home of David and Elma Beeson on December 14, 1915. The same local account says he sold that home in 1924.
The more lasting mark came on Broad Street. On July 1, 1916, Dr. Conley Greear and H. C. Greear purchased lots 18 and 19 on the south side of Broad Street, beside the Blue Sulphur Hotel. They built a two-story brick building on one of those lots. That building held Greear’s dental office and the St. Paul Pharmacy, and the Masonic Lodge met there from the 1920s until the lodge acquired a different building in the 1950s.
The Broad Street building connects Greear to a larger St. Paul story. Broad Street had been planned as the town’s main commercial street, though early merchants first favored locations nearer the railroad. By the 1910s the center of business activity was changing, and Greear was among those who helped pull attention toward Broad Street. His dental office did not stand alone. It was part of a business block that served shoppers, lodge members, pharmacy customers, and people gathering in town.
A later St. Paul history remembered the same building as one built by Dr. Conley Greear and his brother H. C. Greear in the late 1910s. It was described as St. Paul’s first drugstore. After Greear retired to his Scott County farm, the building became Hall’s Drug Store and remained connected with that business for many years. In that way, a building raised by two Greear brothers continued to serve St. Paul long after Conley Greear had left daily business life there.
Councilman, Mason, and Community Man
Greear’s St. Paul years were not only professional and commercial. Official reports of the Secretary of the Commonwealth list Dr. C. E. Greear among the town council members of St. Paul in the 1910s. One report places Dr. C. E. Greear and C. H. Greear on the council along with other local officers. Another later report again lists C. E. Greear among St. Paul council members.
These entries matter because they show Greear participating in town government before his later service in Richmond. St. Paul had been incorporated in 1911, and the town was still shaping its civic identity. Council members dealt with the ordinary but important work of a young Appalachian municipality, including streets, public improvements, town officers, business needs, and the everyday problems that came with growth.
The Virginia House biography later listed Greear’s affiliations as the Baptist Church, the Masons, and Ruritan. Those groups were not minor details. In the communities of Scott and Wise counties, church membership, lodge work, and civic clubs helped build trust across family lines and political lines. They gave men like Greear a place to serve, speak, organize, and be known.
The St. Paul Woman’s Club records add another glimpse into the Greear household’s standing in the community. Local history pages name Mrs. Conley Greear in early club activity and social work. Such references do not tell the full family story, but they place the Greear name within the civic life of St. Paul during its formative years.
Returning to Scott County
Although Greear spent important years in Wise County, the core of his identity remained tied to Scott County. His birthplace was Wood. His later farm was in Scott County. His political career was as a representative of Scott County. Even the St. Paul local history describes him as a man who came from Wood near Fort Blackmore, not as someone detached from his home county.
That return to Scott County fits a common Appalachian pattern. Professional men often moved where work was available, especially in railroad towns and coalfield communities, but family land, county loyalties, and rural identity continued to pull them back. For Greear, Scott County was more than a birthplace. It became the district he represented in the Virginia House of Delegates.
His life also bridged two parts of far southwestern Virginia. Scott County, Wise County, Big Stone Gap, St. Paul, Wood, Fort Blackmore, and the Clinch Valley all formed part of the same regional network. People traveled between them for work, medical care, court business, schooling, trade, and politics. Greear’s career followed those routes.
Representing Scott County in Richmond
The official Virginia House DOME page lists Conley Erwin Greear as a Republican member of the House of Delegates for Scott County, with sessions served from 1952 to 1957. The same record lists his occupation as dentist and places him on committees dealing with Education, Interstate Cooperation, Labor, and Mining and Mineral Resources.
Those committee assignments suited a delegate from far southwestern Virginia. Education mattered deeply in mountain counties where schools, roads, and opportunity were constant public concerns. Labor and mining were central to the economy and politics of the coalfield region. Mining and mineral resources touched not only Wise County, but the wider Appalachian economy around Scott County as well. Interstate cooperation also made sense in a county close to Tennessee and within a region where state borders often mattered less in daily life than roads, rivers, markets, and kinship.
The House record shows Greear serving in the 1952 session, the 1954 to 1955 session, the 1955 session, and the 1956 session. That record should be treated as the most reliable guide to his legislative service. Some later summaries give slightly different date ranges, but the House Clerk’s historical database is the stronger authority.
His elections help fill out the picture. The Virginia Historical Elections Database records Dr. Conley E. Greear, Republican, in the 1953 House of Delegates election for District 66 with 4,305 votes. In 1955, the same database records him with 5,086 votes. These results show that by the mid-1950s, Greear had become the recognized Republican legislative figure for Scott County.
A Local Bill and Local Responsibilities
A March 18, 1954 issue of the Scott County News reported that Delegate Conley E. Greear sponsored a bill. That kind of local newspaper item is important because it brings the legislative record back home. For readers in Gate City, Fort Blackmore, Dungannon, Weber City, and other Scott County communities, a delegate’s work in Richmond mattered most when it touched local roads, schools, offices, courts, taxes, or public services.
Greear was not a statewide political celebrity. He was a county delegate, and county delegates often did the quiet work of carrying local concerns into the General Assembly. Their names appeared in official journals, committee lists, small newspaper items, election returns, and town conversations. That was the world where Greear operated.
The committees also suggest the concerns he would have heard from home. A dentist in a rural county would have known the cost of distance. Patients had to travel. Students had to reach schools. Working families depended on mines, farms, timber, small businesses, and public roads. The House did not preserve every conversation Greear had with constituents, but his professional and civic background helps explain why voters would have seen him as a practical representative.
The 1961 Comeback Attempt
Greear’s most dramatic election record came after his main period of House service. In 1961, he ran again for the House of Delegates in District 66 as the Republican candidate. His Democratic opponent was James B. Fugate.
The official result was extremely close. The Virginia Historical Elections Database records James B. Fugate with 2,684 votes and Dr. Conley E. Greear with 2,679. Five votes separated the two men.
Close elections are often remembered because they reveal how personal local politics could be. In a county race, five votes might come from one family, one hollow, one precinct, one missed ride to the polls, or one late change of mind. The official record gives only numbers, but the numbers suggest a county divided almost evenly between two candidates.
For Greear, the 1961 result marked the near return of an older public servant. By then he was in his seventies. He had been a dentist for decades, a St. Paul civic figure, a Scott County farmer, and a former delegate. The race did not return him to Richmond, but it showed that his name still carried enough strength to come within five votes of victory.
Death and Burial
Conley Erwin Greear died on April 12, 1966. The Virginia House biography records that date, and later cemetery transcriptions connect him with Holston View Cemetery in Weber City, Scott County. The House biography also names his spouses as Venus Phobe Carter and Ruth Elaine Addington.
By the time of his death, Greear’s public life had stretched across more than half a century. He had graduated from dental school in 1910, advertised as a dentist in Big Stone Gap soon afterward, built and practiced in St. Paul, served in town government, joined the circles of church and lodge life, returned to Scott County, and represented the county in Richmond.
His story does not survive as one grand event. It survives in fragments. A medical college graduation list. A dental advertisement. A town council roster. A Broad Street building. A House committee list. An election return decided by five votes. A cemetery entry. Put together, those fragments show the shape of a long Appalachian public life.
Why Conley Greear’s Story Matters
Conley E. Greear matters because he represents a type of Appalachian leader who often slips between the larger stories. He was not a governor, senator, industrialist, or nationally known reformer. He was a local professional whose influence came from years of presence in the same region.
In Scott County and nearby Wise County, men like Greear helped build the everyday institutions that held communities together. They served patients, sat on councils, joined lodges, bought lots, built storefronts, sponsored bills, and stood for election. Their lives were woven into the practical concerns of mountain people.
His Broad Street building in St. Paul tells one part of the story. His House service tells another. The first shows a young professional investing in a growing railroad and coalfield town. The second shows an older Scott County Republican carrying local concerns into the Virginia legislature. Between those two points lies the quieter history of professional work, community reputation, and public service.
For Appalachian history, that is the value of Greear’s life. He reminds us that regional history is not only made by famous names and dramatic events. It is also made by dentists, councilmen, farmers, lodge members, and county delegates whose names appear in scattered records, but whose work helped shape the towns and counties where they lived.
Sources & Further Reading
Virginia House of Delegates. “Conley Erwin Greear.” A History of the Virginia House of Delegates. Accessed June 17, 2026. https://history.house.virginia.gov/members/8901.
Virginia House of Delegates. “1952 Session Information.” A History of the Virginia House of Delegates. Accessed June 17, 2026. https://history.house.virginia.gov/sessions/207.
Virginia House of Delegates. “1954–1955 Session Information.” A History of the Virginia House of Delegates. Accessed June 17, 2026. https://history.house.virginia.gov/sessions/208.
Virginia House of Delegates. “1955 Session Information.” A History of the Virginia House of Delegates. Accessed June 17, 2026. https://history.house.virginia.gov/sessions/209.
Virginia House of Delegates. “1956 Session Information.” A History of the Virginia House of Delegates. Accessed June 17, 2026. https://history.house.virginia.gov/sessions/210.
Commonwealth of Virginia. “Dr Conley E. Greear.” Virginia Historical Elections Database. Accessed June 17, 2026. https://historical.elections.virginia.gov/candidate/54840.
Commonwealth of Virginia. “1953 Nov. 3 General Election, State Representative, State House District 66.” Virginia Historical Elections Database. Accessed June 17, 2026. https://historical.elections.virginia.gov/contest/80368.
Commonwealth of Virginia. “1955 Nov. 8 General Election, State Representative, State House District 66.” Virginia Historical Elections Database. Accessed June 17, 2026. https://historical.elections.virginia.gov/contest/80580.
Commonwealth of Virginia. “1961 Nov. 7 General Election, State Representative, State House District 66.” Virginia Historical Elections Database. Accessed June 17, 2026. https://historical.elections.virginia.gov/contest/79920.
Virginia. Secretary of the Commonwealth. Annual Report of the Secretary of the Commonwealth to the Governor and General Assembly of Virginia for the Year Ending September 30, 1917. Richmond: Davis Bottom, Superintendent Public Printing, 1918. https://archive.org/stream/reportsecretary01commgoog/reportsecretary01commgoog_djvu.txt.
“Medical College Gives Out List of Graduates.” News Leader, May 16, 1910. https://www.virginiachronicle.com/?a=d&d=NEL19100516.1.14.
“Dr. C. E. Greear, Dentist.” Big Stone Gap Post, July 12, 1911. https://www.virginiachronicle.com/?a=d&d=BSGP19110712.1.4.
“Dr. C. E. Greear, Dentist.” Big Stone Gap Post, January 17, 1912. https://www.virginiachronicle.com/?a=d&d=BSGP19120117.1.4.
“Dr. C. E. Greear, Dentist.” Big Stone Gap Post, April 15, 1914. https://www.virginiachronicle.com/?a=d&d=BSGP19140415.1.4.
“Dr. C. E. Greear, Dentist.” Big Stone Gap Post, May 13, 1914. https://www.virginiachronicle.com/?a=d&d=BSGP19140513.1.4.
“Page 1.” Scott County News, March 18, 1954. https://www.virginiachronicle.com/?a=d&d=SCTCN19540318.1.1.
“Conley Greear GOP Nominee.” Kingsport Times-News, April 9, 1961. https://www.newspapers.com/.
“Dr. C. Greear, Fort Blackmore Dentist, Dies.” Kingsport Times, April 13, 1966. https://www.newspapers.com/.
“Dr. C. Greear.” Kingsport Times, April 14, 1966. https://www.newspapers.com/.
Couch, Jerry F. “Business as Usual on Broad Street.” St. Paul & Minneapolis Virginia 1889 to Present. Accessed June 17, 2026. https://sphistory.wordpress.com/articles/business-as-usual-on-broad-street/.
“Strolling Around St. Paul, 1971.” Clinch Valley Times, July 13, 2018. https://clinchvalleytimes.net/2018/07/13/strolling-around-st-paul-1971/.
Couch, Jerry F. “Woman’s Club of St. Paul: A Legacy of Community Service.” St. Paul & Minneapolis Virginia 1889 to Present. Accessed June 17, 2026. https://sphistory.wordpress.com/articles/womans-club-of-st-paul/.
Appalachian Regional Commission. “Appalachian Counties Served by ARC.” Accessed June 17, 2026. https://www.arc.gov/appalachian-counties-served-by-arc/.
Appalachian Regional Commission. “Virginia.” Accessed June 17, 2026. https://www.arc.gov/appalachian-states/virginia/.
Appalachian Regional Commission. “Sullivan, Tennessee.” Accessed June 17, 2026. https://www.arc.gov/states_counties/sullivan-tennessee/.
Author Note: Conley E. Greear’s life shows how local professionals helped shape Appalachian civic life through medicine, business, town service, and politics. His story is built from official Virginia records, election returns, newspaper notices, and St. Paul local history.