George Wesley Atkinson (June 29, 1845 – April 4, 1925) was a cavalryman, lawyer, politician, judge and scholar who became the tenth governor of West Virginia after running as the candidate of the Republican Party.

He also served in the West Virginia House of Delegates, as well as in the United States House of Representatives from West Virginia and ended his career of public service as a United States federal judge of the Court of Claims.

[6] During the Civil War, Atkinson enlisted and mustered out as a private in Company F of the 1st West Virginia cavalry.

[7] After the war, in addition to becoming superintendent of the Kanawha County public schools, losing his father and marrying (as discussed below), Atkinson attended Ohio Wesleyan University and received an Artium Baccalaureus degree in 1870.

[1] He also took graduate level courses from Mount Union College, a Methodist-affiliated institution founded in 1845 in Alliance, Ohio, which would award him a PhD "pro merito" in 1887.

[6] He first married Ellen Eagan, with whom he had five children; their firstborn, Howard Atkinson, rose to become a major in the United States Army.

[1] Shortly after graduating from Howard's law school, Atkinson was admitted to the West Virginia bar, beginning a private practice in Charleston from 1875 to 1877.

In addition to speaking out against racist Jim Crow legislation being adopted by neighboring states which disenfranchised most blacks and poor whites, Atkinson championed high-quality public education, a permanent road system, and open and equal immigration.

[3] After Atkinson's gubernatorial term ended, President Roosevelt named him (and the Senate confirmed him as) the United States Attorney for the Southern District of West Virginia, a position he held from 1901 to 1905.

[11] Atkinson wrote 11 books of poetry and non-fiction, including History of Kanawha County (1876), West Virginia Pulpit (1878)After the Moonshiners (1881), Revenue Digest (1880); A.B.C.