George R. Peck.

Kansas Historical Collection, Volume 9., 1905-1906, p. 144.

 

George R. Peck was born May 15, 1843, in Cameron, Steuben County, New York.  He is a descendant of William Peck, who emigrated from England in 1638 and was one of the founders of New Haven.  His father Joel Munger Peck, was born in Chenango County, New York, in 1799and removed to Plmyra,  Wis., in 1849.  His mother Amanda Purdy, was born in Norwich, Chenango County, New York in 1804.

 

George R. Peck was the youngest of ten children.  He worked on a farm until he was sixteen years old.  He attended the common schools during the Fall and Winter.  For three successive winters he taught school.  At the age of seventeen he entered Milton College His parents determined to send him to an Eastern college, but on the day he was to start he changed his mind, and enlisted under Lincolns call for 3000,000, additional volunteers in the First Wisconsin Artillery.  In three months he was made First Lieutenant of company K., Thirty-First Wisconsin Infantry, of which he became Captain.  He was with General Sherman in many of his engagements and was mustered out in July, 1865.

 

He read law with Charles G. Williams in Janesville, Wis., where he practiced for three years, and in the Fall of 1871, changed his residence to Independence Kan., January 14, 1874.  He was appointed United States district Attorney for Kansas by President Grant, and reappointed by President Hayes.  He moved to Topeka and formed a partnership with Thomas Ryan.  He became general solicitor for the Atchison, Topeka at Santa Fe Railroad Company in 1881, serving until August, 1896, when he was called to a similar position with Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railway.  He served many years as regent of Kansas State University. He was married in 1866, to Miss Belle Burdick, of Janesville, Wis., they have three children.

 

Authors note.  The 1880 census states there were four children one must of died or got married between 1880 and 1904.  the children were; Minnie, Isabel, Ethel and Charles B. Peck.

 

Obituary from Topeka State Journal, February 23, 1923, p. 7.

 

George R. Peck is Dead.

Former Topeka attorney Dies in Hinsdale Ill.

 

A telegram was received in Topeka today by Charles Blood Smith, Topeka attorney, announcing the death at Hinsdale Ill., Thursday of George R. Peck, 80 years old, formerly of Topeka.  He had been in ill health for several years.  He retired a few years ago as consulting counsel of the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railroad at Chicago.

 

Mr.  Peck was born in New York May 15, 1843.  He entered the Union Army as a private in the Civil War, serving from 1861 to 1865 and was a captain in the First Wisconsin Heavy Artillery and later in the Thirty-First Wisconsin Infantry.  He was admitted to the bar in 1866 and from 1871 to 1874 practiced law at Independence Kan.  He came to Topeka in 1874 and practiced law here until 1893, when he moved to Chicago.

 

He was senior member of the firm of Peck, Miller and Starr from 1894 to 1912.  He was general solicitor for the Santa Fe Railroad from 1881 to 1895 and at the time of the reorganization of the Santa Fe became consulting counsel for the C. M. & St. P. from 1874 to 1879 he served as United States District Attorney for Kansas.  He was President of the American Bar Association from 1905 to 1906.  He was a Republican in politics.

 

The funeral will be held Monday at Evanston Ill.