Hugh Peterson was born on August 21, 1898 to William J. Peterson (1849-1915) and Joanna Calhoun Peterson (1856-1914) in Ailey, Montgomery County, Georgia. Ailey was founded by the Peterson family and incorporated in 1893. It was originally named Peterson although the name was changed in tribute to Ala Peterson, the mother of William J. Peterson and misspelled as Ailey. It is located on U. S. Highway 280 between Vidalia and Mt. Vernon, Georgia. In 1905, Hugh Peterson entered the Union Baptist Institute and continued his education there through 1916, graduating from Brewton-Parker Institute (both of which now are Brewton-Parker College). He matriculated at the University of Georgia and graduated in 1918, immediately after which he enlisted in the United States Army. Peterson entered West Point in October of the same year and remained in the military until honorably discharged at the end of World War I. He returned to Ailey and established an insurance agency in 1919 while managing the Peterson family farm holdings and studying law under a private course. In 1921, he was admitted to the Georgia Bar Association and elected mayor of Ailey, serving from 1922 to 1923. In 1922, Peterson won a seat in the Georgia House of Representatives as a representative of Montgomery County. He continued his insurance and farming enterprises while in office and established the Monitor Publishing Company in 1924, serving as president of the publishing company and editor of the Montgomery Monitor into the 1950s. Peterson also maintained his law practice in Ailey while serving in the legislature and worked on parole, divorce, collections and other various civil litigation cases. Information regarding this can be found in Series I. Personal/Business. Peterson was a member of the Georgia House of Representatives until 1930, during which he served on numerous committees including: Amendments to the Constitution, Appropriations, Aviation, Conservation, General Agriculture Number 1, General Judiciary Number 2, Pensions, Public Highways, Public Printing, Rules, Sanitarium at Alto, State of the Republic, University of Georgia and its Branches, and Ways and Means Committees. He also became close friends with other young legislators from around the state of Georgia, including Roy V. Harris and Richard B. Russell, Jr. Peterson's high level of involvement with fellow legislators, committees, and state agencies allowed him to contribute to Governor Lamartine Hardman's plan to reorganize the state government of Georgia in 1928 and 1929. This effort was led by Ivan Allen, an Atlanta businessman, and consisted of a major survey of the departments and organization of the state government. Series III, State Legislative, contains information regarding Peterson's work in the Georgia legislature. In late 1929, Hugh Peterson met Patience Elizabeth Russell, the daughter or Judge Richard B. Russell, Sr. and Ina Dillard Russell and sister of Richard B. Russell, Jr. The couple was married on June 24, 1930 in Winder, Georgia and resided in Ailey. Later in the year, Peterson ran for a seat in the state senate as his new brother-in-law, Richard B. Russell, Jr. ran for governor. Both won their respective elections and immediately set to work modifying and implementing former Governor Hardman and Ivan Allen's plans. Russell named Peterson chair of a special legislative committee on the reorganization of state government in 1931 through which extensive hearings of all state agencies were held. Peterson then authored the State Reorganization Act of 1931, which included the consolidation of over 100 state departments into 19 and included the creation of the Board of Regents. Governor Russell signed the act into law on August 28, 1931. Peterson's term as a state senator came to an end in 1932 and he elected not to run again, instead deciding to focus on running for the United States Congress as the representative of the First Congressional District, which had been recently re-surveyed to consist of Bryan, Bulloch, Burke, Candler, Chatham, Effingham, Emanuel, Evans, Jenkins, Long, McIntosh, Montgomery, Screven, Tattnall, Toombs, and Wheeler Counties. His opponent was Homer Parker, who won the election. Peterson spent the next two years carefully planning his campaign for the 1934 election, networking in the First Congressional District, practicing law, and running his insurance, newspaper and agricultural businesses. In 1934, he ran against incumbent Parker and Albert Cobb for the same seat in the 74th Congress and won in the Democratic Primary held on September 12. The Petersons moved to an apartment on Connecticut Avenue in Washington, D.C. soon thereafter, which they kept through the end of Peterson's life. Series II, Campaigns, contains information regarding theses campaigns as well as those through the 1946 election. Hugh Peterson remained in office until 1946 and his service as a congressman included extensive research on agriculture and public lands and territories in the United States. He spent his first few terms drafting his primary piece of legislation, H.R. 8286 - A Bill to Provide Homesteads Free of Debt for Actual Farm Families, the goal of which was to help American farmers during the Great Depression with their farm debt. The rate of farmers carrying mortgages had risen exponentially from 1890 to 1930 as had the rate of tenant farmers over owner-operators, which Peterson thought to be a direct correlation with the amount of free land left for Americans to claim. The proposed legislation was originally introduced in 1936 and survived multiple sessions in the House of Representatives. In its report on the bill, the House of Representatives Subcommittee on Public Lands found that no national land legislation allowing persons to claim homesteads had been passed since the Homestead Law of 1862. Coincidentally, the Bankhead-Jones Farm Tenant Act, which funded low-interest loans for tenants so that they might become land owners and created the Farm Security Administration, was introduced and passed in the same sessions of Congress. It is thought to be the reason that Peterson's land proposal never made it out of the House of Representatives. The Legislation subseries of Series IV, U. S. Congress, holds information and research material regarding the bill. As in the state legislature, Peterson was active on numerous committees. His work on the Committee on Public Lands included a chairmanship of the Subcommittee of Public Domain and Homestead Laws. He also served as chair of the Committee on Territories and spent time studying Hawaii and Alaska, the latter in which he held hearings regarding statehood and traveled extensively. Peterson served on the Roads Committee, the service of which took him to Alaska to study the Alcan Highway as well as Central America to inspect the Inter-American Highway (now known as the Pan American Highway) as it was being built. He participated in the Committee on Rivers and Harbors, serving as chair for almost two years. He also served as chair of the Subcommittee on Beach Erosion and made trips to Texas and California for inspections of coastal property. Peterson also served on the Smith Committee, which was established as a special committee in the House of Representatives to investigate the Executive Branch of the Federal Government, as well as the Election Committee, which was in charge of investigating contested elections. Series IV, U. S. Congress, contains information regarding this work in the committees subseries. During his time in office, Peterson employed staff from Georgia to work in his office including Gladys Aaron, Bill Harris and Joe Underwood. Memos and correspondence from these individuals is found in Series IV, U.S. Congress, as well. In 1946, returning veteran and former state legislator Prince Preston of Statesboro successfully ran against Peterson for the congressional seat, forcing him to pursue other avenues of political work and focus on his business ventures in Ailey. Upon entering Congress in 1935, Peterson gave up his insurance business but continued running the Monitor Publishing Company as well as the Ailey Gin Company and the Ailey Manufacturing Company, which he established in 1941. He also acquired the Vidalia Gum Turpentine Plant in 1947. While in office, he and his wife Patience spent time rebuilding the Peterson home place in Ailey, which was named Sandridge Manor. After two years of construction, the Petersons moved in with their son Hugh Peterson, Jr. (b. 1935) in 1940. Series I, Personal/Business, contains information regarding this period. Peterson was able to obtain a position in Germany in 1948 under General Lucius Clay as an advisor after much negotiation and two trips to Europe in 1946 and 1947. While there, he was able to travel throughout Europe to observe the aftermath of World War II and witness the trials at Nuremburg. Unfortunately, he developed minor health problems soon after arriving in Germany and was advised to return to the United States. Series V, Post Congress, holds information about this venture. From his retirement from Congress through his death in 1961, Peterson spent the rest of his career as a lobbyist for the Georgia Power Company, the United States Cane Refiners Association and the American Turpentine Farmers Association. He also pursued development interests around Montgomery County and the region of southeast Georgia, including the resurrection of the Ocean Steamship Company and the establishment of a radio and television station. He also researched further development around Sylva, North Carolina. It was there that he died of a cerebral hemorrhage on October 3, 1961. He was survived by his wife, Patience Russell Peterson, who died in 2002 at the age of 100, and his son, Hugh Peterson, Jr., who is a retired attorney in Atlanta, Georgia, and chairman and CEO of VNS Corporation, the successor to the Vidalia Gum and Turpentine Company.
From the description of Hugh Peterson, Sr. papers, 1814-1961, bulk 1919-1961. (University of Georgia). WorldCat record id: 492281439
