Dr. Edgar C. Smith - Carmel, California
April 30, 1997
E-Mail
Date: Wed, 30 Apr 1997 19:20:45, -0500
From: Dr. Edgar C. Smith
To: Paul D. Peery
Subject: Nash and Edwin Peery
Dear Paul,
I was very much interested in the article "Dad and His
Folks" by Thomas L. Peery as presented in your PCO Newsletter
Vol 3 No. 1 dated January 25, 1997. This included a brief
biography not only of James Witten, but also of the author's
father, Nash A. Peery, and I thought that your readers might
like to know more about him and further family connections in
Washington and Alaska.
Nash Andral Peery was born Dec. 15, 1855, in Edinburg,
Grundy Co., MO, one of 8 children of Dr. Archibald Peery and his
wife, the former Elizabeth Ann Kirk. Dr. Archibald Peery had
come to Missouri in 1835 with his father, George Peery, and
family. The George Peery Family Cemetery, as recorded by the
local DAR chapter in 1960, contains among others 32 Peerys and
22 Wittens. That family plot is said to be across the street
from the house built by Dr. Arch Peery.
Nash married Nettie Adell McIntosh on Nov. 10, 1887. She
died in 1906 and he in 1931. Nash seems to have followed Jim
Witten not only to (George) Washington Law School in Washington,
D.C., but also to Alaska, as indicated in the following
newspaper notices:
The Morning Oregonian, Portland, OR, May 6, 1931
Death Notice:
"Nash A. Peery, aged 75 years, May 5, of 811 East Morrison;
father of Arch Peery of Ketchum, Idaho, Wallace of Crescent
City, Cal., and Thomas of Avenal, Cal.; brother of Dr. T. P.
Peery of Yuba City, Cal., Will and Arch Peery of Oklahoma, John
and Florence Peery of Missouri. The remains are at Finley's,
Montgomery and Fifth."
The Morning Oregonian, Portland, OR, May 8, 1931:
Obituary:
"....Mr. [Nash] Peery, who was born in Edinburg, Mo, in
1855, came to Portland in 1888(?). He practiced law here with
his retirement ten years ago. He went to Alaska in 1912 and
served in Nome as United States District Attorney in the Wilson
administration. He resumed his law practice on returning to
Portland.
Mr. Peery was a well-known democrat and member of Woodmen
of the World camp No. 77. He is survived by his three sons, A.
F. Peery of Ketchum, Idaho; W. W. Peery of Crescent City, Cal.;
and T. L. Peery of Avenal, Cal., who are all in the city to
attend the funeral."
The Portland City Directories for 1910 and 1911 show Nash
and Edwin Howe Peery as law partners in a firm called Peery and
Peery. A biography of Edwin H. Peery is shown on the Peery Home
Page Site; he and Joseph Stras Peery developed the Peery
Genealogy presented in the Utah Genealogical and Historical
Magazine, 1917-1919. Edwin was a son of George Catlett Peery
and Ruth Jane Kirk who was a sister of Nash's mother Elizabeth
Kirk. (The fathers of Nash and Edwin were also first cousins.)
Edwin Howe Peery also earned a Master of Laws degree in
1896 at what is now George Washington University Law School. As
shown in his biography on the Home Page Site, he worked for the
Civil Service Commission, the Treasury Department and then the
Reclamation Service in Washington D.C. from 1894 to 1907 and
then for two years in Cuba before returning to Portland,
Oregon. In 1912, at the invitaion of General E. H. Crowder for
whom he had worked in Cuba, he returned to Washington as a law
clerk in the office of the Judge Advocate General of the Army.
He later went back to the Reclamation Service for which he
worked until his death on January 29, 1920. Did he work closely
there with James Witten on land cases?
-------------------------------------------------
While not a lawyer, another member of the family in
Portland, Oregon, also went to Alaska for a time and had married
into the Witten family. Leslie Thomas Peery, a brother of Edwin
H. Peery, was born in Grundy Co., MO, on March 14, 1859 and
married Emma Jane Witten there. They migrated to Oregon with
other family members in 1888. In 1898 Leslie went to Alaska,
not as a lawyer dealing in land issues, but to hunt for gold.
Did he find any? Here is his obituary:
The Morning Oregonian, Portland, June 27, 1933:
Obituary:
"The funeral services for Leslie Thomas Peery, 74, who
died Sunday at his residence, 2006 North Williams Avenue, will
be held this afternoon at 2:30 from Pearson's funeral church,
with interment in Greenwood Cemetery. Mr. Peery, who was born
March 14, 1859, in Missouri, moved to Portland during December,
1888. He opened a grocery store the following year on the
corner of Union Avenue and San Rafael Streets, one of the
pioneer grocer of the Albina district. He was active in the
politics of the day, and was elected to the city council,
resigning in 1898 to join the Alaska gold rush.
....Mr. Peery is survived by his widow, Mrs. Emma J.
Peery; two sons, B. Howe Peery, Yuba City, Cal., and Dr. Leslie
T. Peery of Berkeley, Cal., and two sisters, Georgia R. Peery of
Forest Grove, Or., and Lura B. Peery, Yuba City, Cal."
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Ed Smith
Editor - Peery Family
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