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George B. Keezell
Portrait of Keezell, 1922
Member of the Virginia House of Delegates for Rockingham and Harrisonburg
In office January 11, 1922 – January 8, 1930Serving with W.C. Hoover, Ralph H. Bader, Jacob R. Breneman
Preceded by	William H. Ruebush
Succeeded by	Jacob R. Breneman
Member of the Virginia Senate from the 8th district
In office December 4, 1895 – January 10, 1912
Preceded by	Thomas K. Harnsberger
Succeeded by	John Paul Jr.
In office January 4, 1884 – December 8, 1887
Preceded by	Joseph B. Webb
Succeeded by	John Acker
Personal details
Born	George Bernard Keezell (1854-07-20)July 20, 1854 Rockingham, Virginia, U.S.
Died	June 22, 1931(1931-06-22) (aged 76) Rockingham, Virginia, U.S.
Political party	Democratic
Spouses	Mary Kate Hannah ​ ​(m. 1886; died 1902)​ Belle Catherine Hannah ​ ​(m. 1903; died 1924)​
Children	7
Occupation	Farmer newspaper publisher politician

George Bernard Keezell (July 20, 1854 – June 22, 1931) was a Virginia farmer, newspaperman and Democratic politician who served as a member of the Virginia Senate and later in the Virginia House of Delegates, in both representing his native Rockingham County.

Early life and education

Born in Keezeltown in Rockingham County, at a home his grandfather (of the same name) had built in 1794, to the former Amanda Fitzallen Peale and her husband George Keezell (who had served in the War of 1812 and married late in life). George was an only child, the third generation to hold that family name. His father died when he was eight years old. Young George was educated in private schools locally, then for two years at Stuart Hall, a college in Baltimore.

Career

Keezell began farming when he was 16, to support his mother. From 1912 until 1923 (during his part-time legislative service discussed below), Keezell engaged in newspaper work.

At age 21 he was selected as one of the local justices of the peace. In 1883 Keezell ran for state senate, and seemed to have lost to Republican Joseph B. Webb. However Keezell successfully challenged the results, and was seated in January 1884. Although he would be elected four times, so that his senatorial service was the longest of any man in his generation, for the second session of his first term, his senatorial district only included Rockingham County, and John Acker succeeded to that seat in 1887. Rockingham County voters again elected Keezell to represent them in the state senate nearly a decade later, in 1895 when he succeeded T.K. Harnsberger, and he was re-elected twice. Keezell resigned from the senate in 1910 to become Rockingham County's treasurer, whereupon Rockingham County voters selected county attorney (and Republican) John Paul to succeed him. More than a decade later, in 1921, Keezell won election as one of the two men representing Harrisonburg and Rockingham County in the Virginia House of Delegates, and was re-elected (with various men as co-delegates in the district) until 1929. Keezell served as chairman of the Rockingham County Democratic party for 25 years. He and George N. Earman also represented Rockingham County at the Virginia Constitutional Convention of 1902. Keezell also served as a presidential elector in 1904. Four successive governors also appointed him a member of the State Board of Fisheries. Keezell also took an active interest in education. He served on the senate committee for Public Institutions and Education, and was patron of the bill establishing the State Normal and Industrial School (now James Madison University) in Harrisonburg. He also served as chairman of its board of trustees.

Personal life

In 1886 Keezell married M. Kate Hannah (1858-1902) of what had become Upshur County, West Virginia, and whose father had died fighting for the Union in Tennessee in 1863. Although their first child, George IV (b.1887) never survived infancy, three of their sons and two daughters survived both parents. In 1903, about a year after his first wife's death in 1902, Keezell married her elder sister, Belle C. Hannah (1850-1924).

Death and legacy

Keezell surived both wives and died on June 21, 1931, and was buried, like his father and grandfather, his wives and some of his children, at the Keezletown cemetery.

References

1. Swem, Earl G. (1918). Register of the General Assembly of Virginia, 1776–1918. Richmond: Virginia State Library. Retrieved October 2, 2016.
2. Dodson, E. Griffith (1939). The General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Virginia, 1919-1939: Register. Richmond: Virginia State Library. p. 275. Retrieved October 2, 2016.
3. John W. Wayland, A History of Rockingham County, Virginia (1912, republished C.j. Carrier Company, Harrisonburg 1996) pp. 361-362
4. Dodson p. 275
5. Cynthia Miller Leonard, The Virginia General Assembly 1619-1978 (Richmond: Virginia State Library 1978) pp. 540, 543, 564.
6. Leonard pp. 568, 572, 575, 579, 584, 588, 593, 598.
7. Wayland p. 361
8. Leonard p. 603
9. Leonard p. 624, 629, 634, 639
10. Wayland
11. Leonard p. 575
12. Dodson
13. Wayland
14. Wayland p. 362
15. Wayland p. 362
16. Dodson p. 275

External links

• Media related to George B. Keezell at Wikimedia Commons
• George B. Keezell at the Virginia House of Delegates
• George B. Keezell at Find a Grave

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