Monterey-Los Angeles-Sacramento County CA Archives Biographies.....Peck, N. R. 1813 - 
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Joy Fisher sdgenweb@yahoo.com January 15, 2007, 11:55 pm

Author: Luther A. Ingersoll, Editor (1893)

REV. N. R. PECK, one of the honorable members of the superannuated Methodist
clergy, is a well-known citizen of Pacific Grove. He is a native of Chittenden
county, Vermont, born March 23, 1813. His father, a Baptist preacher, was born
in Rhode Island, although he followed his calling chiefly in Vermont and St.
Lawrence county, New York, in which latter place his death occurred in 1860,
when he had attained the age of eighty-five years. His wife, mother of subject,
Sahara Rounds, was born in Rutland county, Vermont, town of Clarendon, of
English descent.

  Our subject was the second child in a large family, was educated in the public
schools of Vermont, and also attended the St. Lawrence Academy at Malone, New
York. In 1838 he joined the Black River Conference, having been engaged in the
local ministry of the Northern New York Conference for some time prior to this
step. In 1855 Mr. Peck became a member of the California Conference by transfer
from the Black River Conference in northern New York, being stationed at Los
Angeles in the same year. He remained only about six months when he was
stationed at Sacramento, where he built up a fine church organization and
erected the present Methodist Church on H street. He filled various appointments
in Sacramento, Placer, El Dorado, and Amador counties, and served as Presiding
Elder in the California Conference in 1861. This good man continued his
ministrations until 1889, when he superannuated, after a service of fifty-four
years. He resided for several years in Placer county, where he was a pioneer in
the growing of olives and oranges in that county, propagating them from the
seed. In this way Mr. Peck became interested in horiculture, and for some time
was an influential member of the State Board of Horticulture.

  In 1889 Mr. Peck took up his residence in Pacific Grove, where (in 1892) he
still lives, and is universally beloved. Mr. Peck first visited California in
1850, and as an independent preacher traveled and preached the gospel of the
Bible to the miners, sometimes having audiences as large as 1,500 people,
chiefly miners, at the old Spanish bar on the American river. When asked how he
could afford to preach so long without remuneration he said, "Why, bless you, I
never had up to that time seen so much money, and scarcely have I since. While
sitting alone in my cabin door those open-handed and generous miners used to
throw sacks of gold dust through my open window or door, not even halting to
receive my thanks."

  Mr. Peck married, in 1833, Mary Rounds, a daughter of Joseph Pounds of
Monkton, Vermont. Two children were born to them, namely: Marilla, who married
and was sent to India in 1856 as a missionary, where she died in 1863, leaving a
daughter who was returned to her native land and is now the wife of Rev. J. W.
Kuykendall, of the California Conference. The other daughter of Mr. Peck was
married to J. N. Maddux, of California, and is now living in San Francisco.

  Mr. Peck is greatly esteemed in Pacific Grove, and is now enjoying a
well-earned rest after a life of toil and arduous labors.



Additional Comments:
Extracted from:

Memorial and Biographical History of the Coast Counties of Central California.

Illustrated.

Containing a History of this Important Section of the Pacific Coast from the
Earliest Period of its Discovery to the Present Time, together with Glimpses of
its Auspicious Future; Illustrations and Full-Page Portraits of some of its
Eminent Men, and Biographical Mention of many of its Pioneers, and Prominent
Citizens of To-day.



HENRY D. BARROWS,
Editor of the Historical Department.

LUTHER A. INGERSOLL,
Editor of the Biographical Department.

"A people that take no pride in the noble achievements of remote ancestors will
never achieve anything worthy to be remembered with pride by remote
descendants."-Macaulay.


CHICAGO: THE LEWIS PUBLISHING COMPANY.
1893.

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