Appalachian Figures Series – The Story of George C. Peery of Wise, Virginia
Before George C. Peery entered Congress, occupied the governor’s office in Richmond, or became one of the most powerful Democratic figures in Virginia, he was a young lawyer working among the coalfields of Wise County.
Peery arrived in Wise during one of the most transformative periods in the county’s history. Railroads were opening the mountains to national markets, coal companies were purchasing enormous tracts of land, and attorneys were sorting through generations of deeds, mineral claims, inheritances, and disputed property lines. His legal work placed him near the center of the industrial transformation taking place across Southwest Virginia.
Although Peery was born in neighboring Tazewell County, Wise County became the place where he established himself as an attorney, entered the world of coal and corporate law, married, raised a young family, and learned the political landscape of Virginia’s Appalachian southwest.
Years later, Wise County formed part of the congressional district that sent Peery to Washington. His political career eventually carried him far beyond the mountains, but the foundations of that career were built among the courthouses, coal properties, company offices, and growing industrial communities of Wise County.
From Cedar Bluff to the Law
George Campbell Peery was born at Cedar Bluff in Tazewell County, Virginia, on October 28, 1873. His parents were James Peery, a physician who had served as a Confederate army surgeon, and Mary Letitia Spotts Peery.
The Peery family had deep roots in the Clinch Valley. George grew up in a region where agriculture, local commerce, family connections, and personal reputation shaped daily life. As a young man, he worked on the family farm and in his father’s store.
These experiences introduced Peery to the practical concerns of rural communities. He learned about land, credit, business agreements, and the importance of trust between neighbors. Those lessons later became valuable when he entered the legal profession.
Peery enrolled at Emory and Henry College in Washington County in 1890. He graduated in 1894 and then served as principal of Tazewell High School for approximately two years.
He eventually entered the Washington and Lee University School of Law in Lexington. Peery received his law degree in 1897, gained admission to the Virginia bar, and began practicing law in Tazewell County.
His time practicing in Tazewell was brief. In 1899, as industrial development accelerated across Southwest Virginia, Peery moved his legal career into Wise County.
Wise County at the Beginning of the Coal Boom
The Wise County that Peery entered was changing rapidly.
For generations, the county’s mountains, narrow valleys, and limited transportation routes had made large-scale industrial development difficult. The arrival of major railroad systems during the late nineteenth century changed the future of the region.
Railroad lines allowed coal, timber, iron, and other natural resources to be shipped to distant markets. Investors and industrial corporations began purchasing land and mineral rights across Wise County.
Towns such as Big Stone Gap, Appalachia, Norton, Coeburn, St. Paul, and Wise grew as railroad workers, miners, merchants, attorneys, land agents, and company officials moved into the region.
Coal camps and company towns appeared across the landscape. Communities such as Stonega, Osaka, Roda, Arno, Exeter, Dunbar, and Derby became closely connected to mining operations.
The growth created jobs and opportunities, but it also produced complicated legal problems.
Companies needed to determine who owned the coal beneath particular tracts of land. In some cases, families had lived on a property for generations without possessing a clear title. In other cases, one person owned the surface while another individual or corporation controlled the coal and mineral rights beneath it.
Railroad companies needed rights of way. Mining companies needed leases, options, and easements. Investors demanded proof that a company had the legal right to remove coal before they committed money to a project.
This was the legal world in which George C. Peery established his career.
A Coal Company Lawyer in Wise County
Peery became associated with the Virginia Iron, Coal and Coke Company, one of the most important industrial corporations operating in Southwest Virginia.
The company was organized in 1899 and controlled or operated coal mines, iron properties, furnaces, rail interests, and related enterprises. Its business activities extended across Southwest Virginia and into neighboring areas.
Peery performed legal work connected to the company’s pursuit of coal and mineral properties. His responsibilities likely required him to examine deeds, surveys, inheritance records, leases, court orders, mineral claims, and disputed boundaries.
This work demanded patience and a detailed understanding of Appalachian landholding.
A coal deposit had little commercial value if a company could not prove that it had the right to extract it. A railroad could not cross private property until the necessary land or passage rights had been secured. A mine could not operate confidently if heirs, neighboring landowners, or competing companies challenged its title.
The surviving records of the Virginia Iron, Coal and Coke Company show how complex this work could become. The company’s papers include deeds, plats, maps, correspondence, ledgers, reports, and legal documents.
Peery’s years with the company gave him an education that extended far beyond the courtroom.
He learned how local families understood their land. He saw how corporations pursued economic power. He became familiar with the courthouse records that determined ownership and authority. He also learned how personal relationships could decide whether a legal agreement succeeded or failed.
These experiences later helped Peery navigate the equally complicated world of Virginia politics.
Building a Life in Wise County
Peery’s years in Wise County were not only important to his professional development. They were also the years in which he established his family life.
On June 19, 1907, he married Nancy Bane Gillespie, who was commonly known as Nannie. She was the daughter of Albert Pendleton Gillespie, a prominent Tazewell attorney and political figure.
George and Nannie Peery eventually had three children.
Peery lived and practiced in Wise during a substantial part of his early adulthood. Some accounts describe his residence in the county as lasting approximately thirteen years, while other sources place his Wise County legal practice between 1899 and 1915.
The difference may reflect the distinction between where he maintained his home and how long he continued to conduct professional business in the county.
What is certain is that Wise County played a major role in shaping Peery’s character and career.
During these years, he was not yet a congressman, state commissioner, or governor. He was a working attorney in a county where coal, land, transportation, law, and politics were becoming increasingly difficult to separate.
Peery watched companies establish towns and transform the mountain landscape. He saw the power that came from controlling mineral rights, railroads, and local institutions. He also became familiar with the voters and political leaders of one of the most competitive regions in Virginia.
Returning to Tazewell County
Peery eventually returned to Tazewell County. In 1915, he helped establish the law firm of Chapman, Peery, and Buchanan.
He continued practicing law and became involved in agriculture and business. Peery developed an interest in livestock raising and maintained a farm near Tazewell.
During World War I, he served as food administrator for Tazewell County. The position involved helping implement federal programs intended to manage and conserve food supplies during the conflict.
Peery also became increasingly active in Democratic politics.
He served as chairman of the Democratic committee for Virginia’s Ninth Congressional District and worked to strengthen the party in a region where Republicans had maintained considerable power.
Most of Virginia was controlled by conservative Democrats, but the Ninth District was different.
Its mountain counties contained strong Republican traditions that had developed from Civil War loyalties, Reconstruction politics, local organization, and opposition to the Democratic leadership in Richmond.
For twenty years, the district had been represented by Campbell Slemp and then his son, C. Bascom Slemp.
The district became known as the Fighting Ninth because Republicans continued to win there despite Democratic dominance across most of Virginia.
The Fight for the Ninth District
Peery helped rebuild the Democratic organization in the Ninth District precinct by precinct.
His work contributed to Democratic gubernatorial candidate E. Lee Trinkle carrying the district in 1921. The result showed that Republicans could be defeated if Democrats created a disciplined organization across the mountain counties.
The following year, C. Bascom Slemp chose not to seek reelection to Congress.
Democrats nominated George C. Peery. Republicans selected John H. Hassinger of Abingdon.
Peery campaigned throughout the Ninth District, including the coal communities of Wise County. Contemporary newspaper notices announced his campaign appearances in the county, including an address at Dunbar.
Campaigning in the Ninth required candidates to travel through courthouse towns, rural communities, railroad settlements, and isolated coal camps. Political loyalty was often personal, and local leaders could determine how an entire precinct voted.
The official results of the November 7, 1922, congressional election showed Peery receiving 32,163 votes. Hassinger received 29,227.
Peery won by fewer than 3,000 votes across the entire district.
The victory ended two decades of Republican representation in the Ninth. Democratic supporters began calling Peery the Redeemer of the Ninth.
His election transformed him from a regional attorney and party organizer into a national officeholder.
Wise County’s Congressman
George C. Peery entered the United States House of Representatives on March 4, 1923. He served in the Sixty-eighth, Sixty-ninth, and Seventieth Congresses.
His district included Wise County and much of Southwest Virginia.
Coal production, railroad transportation, highways, postal service, veterans’ affairs, mine commerce, and access to federal resources were all important to his constituents.
Peery served on the House Committee on Roads during his first term. Road development was especially important in the mountains, where many communities remained separated from county seats, schools, hospitals, markets, and railroad depots by difficult terrain.
Peery did not become known as one of the most influential legislators in Congress. His greater importance came from what his election represented.
He had demonstrated that a disciplined Democratic organization could defeat Republicans in the Fighting Ninth.
Peery won reelection in 1924. He received 31,407 votes against Republican C. Henry Harman’s 28,341.
He won again in 1926, receiving 28,305 votes against Republican S. R. Hurley’s 24,684.
Each election remained competitive, but Peery succeeded in maintaining the Democratic coalition he had helped create.
His victories also brought him closer to Harry F. Byrd, who was emerging as the most powerful Democratic leader in Virginia.
Peery and the Byrd Organization
George C. Peery’s political rise cannot be separated from the growth of the Byrd Organization.
Harry F. Byrd built a disciplined political system based on courthouse officials, local party leaders, patronage, conservative fiscal policy, and personal loyalty.
Peery became one of Byrd’s dependable political allies.
The organization promoted low taxes, limited government spending, balanced budgets, and a pay-as-you-go approach to public projects.
The organization also operated within a deeply restricted political system.
Virginia’s poll tax and registration requirements excluded large numbers of poor white and Black citizens from voting. Local political leaders sometimes paid the poll taxes of reliable supporters while leaving potential opponents outside the electorate.
Only a relatively small percentage of Virginia adults regularly participated in elections during the height of the organization’s power.
Peery benefited from this system and helped extend Democratic influence into Southwest Virginia.
His political career therefore contained both achievement and serious limitations.
Peery helped give the Appalachian southwest greater influence within the Virginia Democratic Party. At the same time, the political organization he served maintained power through voting restrictions, courthouse influence, segregation, and control over public offices.
The State Corporation Commission
Peery chose not to seek another term in Congress in 1928.
He returned to law, agriculture, and business, but he did not leave public life.
In 1929, Peery became a member of the Virginia State Corporation Commission.
The commission regulated railroads, utilities, insurance companies, banks, and corporations. Peery’s experience in corporate law, mineral rights, land titles, and railroad development made him well suited to the position.
His service on the commission also increased his statewide visibility.
Peery was no longer simply a former congressman from the Ninth District. His decisions could affect companies, transportation systems, public utilities, and communities throughout Virginia.
Peery had long hoped to become governor.
He stepped aside when Byrd supported John Garland Pollard in the 1929 gubernatorial election. His loyalty to the organization was remembered.
When Pollard’s term neared its end, Byrd supported Peery as his preferred successor.
The Road to the Governor’s Mansion
Peery entered the Democratic gubernatorial primary in 1933.
He faced Joseph Deal and state senator W. Worth Smith, both of whom criticized the influence of the Byrd Organization.
Peery won approximately 62 percent of the primary vote.
He then defeated Republican Fred McWane in the November general election.
The lawyer who had once examined coal properties and land titles in Wise County was preparing to enter the Virginia Executive Mansion.
Peery became governor on January 17, 1934.
Virginia was still suffering from the Great Depression. Businesses had failed, unemployment remained widespread, local governments struggled to provide services, and state revenues had fallen.
Federal New Deal agencies were placing unprecedented amounts of money and authority into relief programs, public works, conservation, and employment.
Peery entered office calling for thrift and economy.
His language reflected the fiscal conservatism of the Byrd Organization. He believed Virginia should avoid debt, limit spending, and maintain balanced budgets.
That position quickly came into conflict with the scale of the economic crisis.
Governing During the Great Depression
Federal relief officials threatened to withdraw assistance because Virginia had failed to contribute enough state money to unemployment relief.
Peery’s administration was forced to balance its commitment to fiscal restraint against the immediate needs of unemployed and impoverished families.
For mining counties such as Wise, these were not abstract political questions.
Reductions in coal demand had left many families without steady incomes. Company towns depended heavily on the financial condition of individual employers. Public schools, roads, and county services faced severe pressure.
Peery oversaw the distribution of relief funds, but his administration remained cautious about expanding state responsibility.
His approach reflected his larger political philosophy. Government could act when necessary, but it should do so without creating excessive debt or permanent spending commitments.
Peery’s conservatism sometimes limited Virginia’s response to the Depression. However, his administration also created and supported several important government institutions.
The Creation of Virginia ABC
One of the first major issues confronting Peery was the end of national prohibition.
The repeal of the Eighteenth Amendment required Virginia to create a new system for regulating alcohol.
Some legislators favored licensing privately operated liquor businesses. Peery instead supported a state-controlled system.
Under his proposal, a three-member board would regulate alcohol sales and operate state liquor stores.
Peery argued that public control would reduce disorder, weaken illegal bootlegging, and generate revenue for the state.
The General Assembly approved the plan in 1934, creating the system that became the Virginia Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control.
By the end of Peery’s term, state stores were operating across Virginia and producing revenue for the government.
The creation of Virginia ABC became one of the most lasting institutional legacies of his administration.
Schools and Public Education
Public education also became an important issue during Peery’s term.
Virginia schools had suffered from reduced funding and shortened school terms during the Depression.
Peery proposed increasing education appropriations by approximately $2 million.
The proposal faced opposition from fiscal conservatives, including some members of his own political organization. Peery nevertheless used his influence to obtain legislative approval.
The increase supported a public school system that remained racially segregated and deeply unequal.
Peery did not challenge Virginia’s Jim Crow structure. Black schools continued to receive fewer resources than white schools, and educational opportunities remained sharply divided by race.
Even within those limitations, the decision to increase school funding during a period of severe fiscal pressure showed that Peery was willing to depart from strict economy when he believed state institutions required additional support.
Reforming Virginia’s Local Courts
Peery also supported reforming the justice of the peace system.
Local justices were often compensated through fees connected to the cases they handled. This created a financial incentive to favor plaintiffs or convict defendants.
The Trial Justice Acts of 1934 and 1936 replaced much of the old system with salaried trial justices appointed through the circuit courts.
The reform reduced the authority of the traditional justice of the peace system and helped establish the foundation for Virginia’s later district court structure.
Peery also appointed the first members of the State Milk Commission and the Unemployment Compensation Commission.
Virginia’s unemployment compensation program allowed the state to participate in the system created by the federal Social Security Act.
These measures reveal a governor who remained politically conservative but was willing to create new institutions when economic pressure, federal policy, or administrative necessity made them useful.
A Conservative Appalachian Governor
George C. Peery never became a fiery populist or a direct champion of coalfield labor.
His political style was reserved, legalistic, and managerial.
This made him different from Appalachian politicians who built their careers by attacking corporations, condemning outside ownership, or presenting themselves as defenders of miners against company power.
Peery had begun his legal career working for an industrial company that was seeking mineral properties. He understood corporate law from the inside.
He generally viewed economic development through the language of investment, property, administration, and stability.
Yet Peery was more flexible than a simple description of Byrd conservative might suggest.
He increased education funding, supported unemployment insurance, reorganized local justice, administered relief programs, and helped create regulatory institutions that remained part of Virginia government long after he left office.
His administration reflected the contradictions of Virginia politics during the Depression.
It accepted some forms of modern government while attempting to prevent government from becoming too expensive or politically independent of the established Democratic organization.
Peery’s reforms were real, but they remained contained within a political system that protected segregation, restricted voting, discouraged opposition, and concentrated authority among a small number of Democratic leaders.
Returning to Southwest Virginia
Peery’s term as governor ended in January 1938.
Virginia governors could not immediately succeed themselves, and Peery returned to Tazewell County.
He resumed practicing law and devoted time to his livestock farm.
Peery also served as a trustee of Washington and Lee University and Hollins College.
He remained a respected elder within Virginia Democratic politics but did not seek another major public office.
The young lawyer who had once traveled through Wise County examining coal properties had become a former congressman, state commissioner, governor, and symbol of Southwest Virginia’s rise within state politics.
George C. Peery died at Richlands in Tazewell County on October 14, 1952, after a lengthy illness.
He was buried in Maplewood Cemetery in the town of Tazewell.
Why George C. Peery Matters to Wise County
George C. Peery was not born in Wise County, and he did not spend his final years there.
Nevertheless, Wise County played a central role in making him the lawyer and politician he became.
It was in Wise that Peery developed his professional reputation. It was there that he encountered the complicated relationship between Appalachian land, industrial capital, railroads, mineral rights, local government, and corporate power.
The county gave him experience that no classroom could have provided.
He learned how economic development could transform a community. He saw how ownership determined power. He witnessed how attorneys often stood between mountain families, distant investors, corporations, and the courthouse.
Wise County later became part of the electorate that sent Peery to Congress.
Its voters participated in the close contests that turned him into the Redeemer of the Ninth and placed him on the path toward the governor’s mansion.
Peery’s story also demonstrates that Appalachian political history cannot be reduced to isolation from Richmond or Washington.
The coalfields produced lawyers, organizers, officeholders, and political networks capable of shaping the entire Commonwealth of Virginia.
His legacy deserves both recognition and careful judgment.
Peery rose from the Appalachian southwest to the highest office in Virginia. He created institutions, increased school funding, reformed local courts, and guided the state through part of the Great Depression.
He also belonged to a political organization that maintained power through restricted voting, courthouse influence, segregation, and disciplined control over public office.
George C. Peery’s life therefore tells more than the story of one successful mountain lawyer.
It tells the story of how coal, land, law, and political organization connected Wise County to the government of Virginia during the first decades of the twentieth century.
Before George C. Peery governed from Richmond, he learned about power in the coalfields of Wise County.
Sources & Further Reading
Addington, Luther Foster. The Story of Wise County, Virginia. Johnson City, TN: Overmountain Press, 1988. https://books.google.com/books/about/The_Story_of_Wise_County_Virginia.html?id=BMwwuiHQgA8C
Appalachian Regional Commission. “Appalachian Counties Served by ARC.” Accessed July 22, 2026. https://www.arc.gov/appalachian-counties-served-by-arc/
Crawford’s Weekly. “George C. Peery and the Ninth District Election.” November 11, 1922. Virginia Chronicle. https://www.virginiachronicle.com/?a=d&d=CW19221111.1.1
Fry, Joseph A. “George C. Peery: Byrd Regular and Depression Governor.” In The Governors of Virginia, 1860–1978, edited by Edward Younger and James Tice Moore, 261–276. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1982. https://books.google.com/books/about/The_Governors_of_Virginia_1860_1978.html?id=ZgxSAQAAIAAJ
Fry, Joseph A. “The Organization in Control: George Campbell Peery, Governor of Virginia, 1934–1938.” Virginia Magazine of History and Biography 82, no. 3 (July 1974): 306–330. https://www.jstor.org/stable/4247892
Fry, Joseph A., and Brent Tarter. “The Redemption of the Fighting Ninth: The 1922 Congressional Election in the Ninth District of Virginia and the Origins of the Byrd Organization.” South Atlantic Quarterly 77, no. 3 (Summer 1978): 352–370. https://read.dukeupress.edu/south-atlantic-quarterly/article/77/3/352/345476/The-Redemption-of-The-Fighting-Ninth-The-1922
Hagley Museum and Library. Penn Virginia Corporation Records. Accession 1764, Manuscripts and Archives Department. Wilmington, DE. https://findingaids.hagley.org/repositories/3/resources/900
Harman, John Newton. Annals of Tazewell County, Virginia, from 1800 to 1922. 2 vols. Richmond, VA: W. C. Hill Printing Company, 1922. https://books.google.com/books/about/Annals_of_Tazewell_County_Virginia_from.html?id=wSMSAAAAYAAJ
Heinemann, Ronald L. Depression and New Deal in Virginia: The Enduring Dominion. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1983. https://books.google.com/books/about/Depression_and_New_Deal_in_Virginia.html?id=QdV2AAAAMAAJ
Heinemann, Ronald L. “George Campbell Peery, 1873–1952.” Encyclopedia Virginia. Virginia Humanities. Published December 7, 2020; updated December 22, 2021. https://encyclopediavirginia.org/entries/peery-george-campbell-1873-1952/
Heinemann, Ronald L. Harry Byrd of Virginia. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1996. https://books.google.com/books/about/Harry_Byrd_of_Virginia.html?id=EkJ3AAAAMAAJ
Library of Congress. “Clinch Valley News.” Directory of U.S. Newspapers in American Libraries. Accessed July 22, 2026. https://www.loc.gov/item/sn85034357/
Library of Congress. “George C. Peery.” Harris and Ewing Collection, Prints and Photographs Division. Accessed July 22, 2026. https://www.loc.gov/pictures/search/?q=George%20C.%20Peery
Library of Virginia. “A Guide to the George Campbell Peery Papers, 1899–1945.” Accession 35134. Richmond, VA. https://ead.lib.virginia.edu/vivaxtf/view?docId=lva%2Fvi00181.xml
Library of Virginia. “A Guide to the Governor George C. Peery Executive Records, 1934–1938.” Accession 23344b. Richmond, VA. https://ead.lib.virginia.edu/vivaxtf/view?docId=lva%2Fvi04718.xml
Library of Virginia. “Chancery Records Index.” Accessed July 22, 2026. https://www.lva.virginia.gov/chancery/
Library of Virginia. “Using Virginia Governors’ Records, 1776–1998.” Research Notes Number 11. Accessed July 22, 2026. https://old.lva.virginia.gov/public/guides/rn11_govrecords.htm
Leslie, Louise B. Tazewell County. Johnson City, TN: Overmountain Press, 1995. https://books.google.com/books/about/Tazewell_County.html?id=OzMqly1hYhUC
National Archives and Records Administration. “Census Records.” Accessed July 22, 2026. https://www.archives.gov/research/census
National Governors Association. “George Campbell Peery.” Accessed July 22, 2026. https://www.nga.org/governor/george-campbell-peery/
Peery, George C. Inaugural Address of George C. Peery, Governor of Virginia. Richmond: Commonwealth of Virginia, January 17, 1934. Copies preserved in the Governor George C. Peery Executive Records, Library of Virginia. https://ead.lib.virginia.edu/vivaxtf/view?docId=lva%2Fvi04718.xml
Peery, George C. Address of George Campbell Peery, Governor, to the General Assembly of Virginia. Richmond: Commonwealth of Virginia, January 8, 1936. Reports to the General Assembly. https://rga.lis.virginia.gov/
Radford University, McConnell Library Archives and Special Collections. Virginia Iron, Coal and Coke Company Records. AC 001, 1899–1965. Radford, VA. https://mozart.radford.edu/archives/findingaids/VirginiaIronCoalCokeCompanyRecords.html
Southside Virginia News. “George C. Peery Becomes Governor of Virginia.” January 18, 1934. Virginia Chronicle. https://www.virginiachronicle.com/?a=d&d=SVNS19340118.1.1
United States Congress. Congressional Record. Sixty-eighth through Seventieth Congresses, 1923–1929. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office. https://www.congress.gov/congressional-record
United States Congress. Official Congressional Directory. Sixty-eighth through Seventieth Congresses. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1923–1929. https://www.govinfo.gov/app/collection/CDIR
United States House of Representatives, Office of the Clerk. Statistics of the Congressional Election of November 7, 1922. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1923. https://clerk.house.gov/member_info/electionInfo/1922election.pdf
United States House of Representatives, Office of the Clerk. Statistics of the Congressional and Presidential Election of November 4, 1924. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1925. https://clerk.house.gov/member_info/electionInfo/1924election.pdf
United States House of Representatives, Office of the Clerk. Statistics of the Congressional Election of November 2, 1926. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1927. https://clerk.house.gov/member_info/electionInfo/1926election.pdf
United States House of Representatives, History, Art and Archives. “Peery, George Campbell.” Accessed July 22, 2026. https://history.house.gov/People/Listing/P/PEERY%2C-George-Campbell-%28P000186%29/
Virginia. Acts of the General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Virginia. Richmond: Division of Purchase and Printing, 1934 and 1936. Virginia Legislative Information System. https://law.lis.virginia.gov/acts-of-assembly/
Virginia Chronicle. “Historical Newspapers of Virginia.” Library of Virginia. Accessed July 22, 2026. https://www.virginiachronicle.com/
Virginia Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control. “Virginia ABC History.” Accessed July 22, 2026. https://www.abc.virginia.gov/about/agency-overview/history
Virginia Department of Historic Resources. “Virginia Landmarks Register Spotlight: The Coal Industry in Wise County.” Accessed July 22, 2026. https://www.dhr.virginia.gov/blog-posts/coal-industry-history-wise-county-southwest-virginia/
Virginia Iron, Coal and Coke Company. Report of the Virginia Iron, Coal & Coke Co. and the Virginia & Southwestern Railway Company. Bristol, VA: Virginia Iron, Coal and Coke Company, 1903. https://search.worldcat.org/search?q=%22Report+of+the+Virginia+Iron%2C+Coal+%26+Coke+Co.%22
Wise County Circuit Court Clerk. Deed books, grantor and grantee indexes, order books, civil case files, land books, and personal-property tax books, approximately 1898–1916. Wise, VA. https://www.wisecounty.org/211/Circuit-Court-Clerk
Younger, Edward, and James Tice Moore, eds. The Governors of Virginia, 1860–1978. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1982. https://books.google.com/books/about/The_Governors_of_Virginia_1860_1978.html?id=ZgxSAQAAIAAJ
Author Note: George C. Peery’s journey from a Wise County law office to Virginia’s governor’s mansion reveals how closely coal, land, and politics were connected in Southwest Virginia. His achievements deserve recognition, but his place within the restrictive Byrd Organization also requires an honest and balanced examination.