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DANIEL WILLIAM PEERY
Vol. 5, p. 1923-1924

In a record of the men who have taken an important part in the
upbuilding and development of Oklahoma, it would be almost impossible
to avoid extended mention of Daniel William Peery. A member of the
First and Second Territorial legislatures, one of the founders of the
state, subsequently elected to the State Legislature, the editor and
publisher of a newspaper for eight years, and one of the organizers
of the City of Carnegie, his name is indissolubly identified with the
history of the commonwealth, where he has been prominent in business
and political circles from the time of his arrival.

Mr. Peery was born at Edinburg, Grundy County, Missouri, August 16,
1864, and is a son of Dr. Arch and Elizabeth (KIRK) Peery. The family
is of Norman origin, the name having been originally spelled Perie,
and was founded in the Colony of Virginia in 1717 by the American
ancestor, a native of the North of Ireland who located in Augusta
County. From that county, William Peery, the great-grandfather of
Daniel W. Peery, moved to Tazewell County, Virginia, in 1775, and
enlisted from the latter county as a soldier in the American army
during the War of the Revolution. As a soldier in the Revolution he
served with Gen. Roger Clark in his expedition against old Fort
Vincennes and was one of five men who were with General Clark from
Tazewell County. His son, George Peery, was born in Tazewell County,
from whence he migrated in 1835 as a pioneer to Northern Missouri,
where he rounded out a long and active career in the pursuits of
farming.

Arch Peery, the father of Daniel William Peery, was born in Tazewell
County, Virginia, in 1818, and was a lad when he accompanied his
father to Missouri. He grew up amid pioneer surroundings and was
reared on the home farm, but was granted good educational advantages
and after thorough preparation enrolled as one of the early students
of the old Missouri Medical College, at St. Louis, where he was duly
graduated with his degree. He became one of the pioneer physicians
and surgeons of Grundy County, Missouri, and for many years practiced
at Edinburg, where he died, honored, and respected, in 1888. Doctor
Peery married Miss Elizabeth KIRK, who was born in Giles County,
Virginia, in 1826, a daughter of Maj. Thomas Kirk, of Giles County,
who was an officer in the American army during the War of 1812. Mrs.
Peery died in Grundy County, Missouri in 1898, having been the mother
of eight children, follows: Horace J., who at the time of his death
at Albany, Missouri, in 1911, was register of deeds and county clerk;
Florence H., who is the wife of John H. Peery, a distant relative, of
Jamesport, Missouri; Nash A., now a practicing attorney of Portland,
Oregon; Dr. T. P., a graduate of the Missouri Medical College, and
now engaged in the practice of medicine and surgery in Yuba City,
Sutter County, California; Mary C., who has been for thirty-three
years a teacher, and for twenty-two years of that time at Portland,
Oregon; Arch, who is engaged in farming and resides in the vicinity
of Apache, Oklahoma; Daniel William , of this notice; and John T.,
who is now living on the old homestead farm at Edinburg near Trenton,
Missouri.

Daniel William Peery received his education the public schools of
Grundy County and Grand River College, an institution which had been
founded by his family and chartered by the Legislature of Missouri in
1852. He was brought up to farming pursuits, and remains on the
homestead until reaching the age of twenty years. He came to Oklahoma
April 22, 1889, and filed on a homestead of 160 acres a few miles
south Oklahoma City. Mr. Peery has been present and at every opening
of public land in the state, and has taken part in all the runs,
including the opening of Sac, Fox, and Pottawatomie reservations,
September 19, 1891; the opening of Cheyenne and Arapahoe (sic)
counties in April 1892, the Cherokee Strip, September 16, 1893 and
the drawing of the Kiowa and Comanche reservations, and in the latter
assisted in locating many of the settlers.

On August 6, 1890, Mr. Peery was elected one of five representatives
from Oklahoma County to the First Territorial Legislature, and in
that capacity assisted in organization of the great State of
Oklahoma. He was sent to the Second Legislature, in 1893, and in that
year removed to El Reno, where, with William CLUTE, he founded the El
Reno Globe, a newspaper which became one of the prominent and
influential publications of the state, and which he edited until
1901. In that year Mr. Peery came to Carnegie, Caddo County, as agent
for the Townsite of Carnegie, a capacity in which he sold the land
and helped to found the town. In 1910 he was again elected to the
Oklahoma Legislature, represent the counties of Caddo, Canadian and
Cleveland. In that body he was known as one of the most active and
prominent members, having charge of the bill which located the
capital at Oklahoma City, and also taking an active part in
educational legislation, in assisting in locating the agricultural
college at Stillwater, the university at Norman and the normal school
at Edmond. A leading democrat, he was a delegate from the Territory
of Oklahoma to the Kansas City National Convention of his party,
which nominated William Jennings Bryan for the presidency, and from
the State of Oklahoma to Denver National Convention, which also chose
that statesman as the leader of the party. He has been active in
state and county democratic conventions, nearly every one of which he
has attended since the organization of the state, and over several of
which he has presided. In 1911 be became a candidate for Congress
from the Northwest District, becoming the seventh candidate in the
field, but met with defeat undoubtedly because he only presented his
name twenty-six days before the primaries when the greater number of
his friends were already pledged.

At the present time Mr. Peery is a member of the real estate firm of
Peery & Crose, his partner, L. P. CROSE being the present mayor of
Carnegie. Among the men who as public servants have made enviable
records for their faithful, earnest and successful efforts in
securing beneficial and wise legislation, none is better or more
favorably known than is Dan W. Peery. An earnest worker for the
advancement of his party's interests, he yet has never allowed his
partisanship to interfere with his efforts in the advancement of what
he has considered best for the interests of his constituents as a
whole. And in every walk of life, whether public or private, the same
high principles have been found to govern his actions.

Transcribed for OKGenWeb by Jack Wood July 21, 1999.

SOURCE: Thoburn, Joseph B., A Standard History of Oklahoma, An
Authentic Narrative of its Development, 5 v. (Chicago, New York: The
American Historical Society, 1916).