Biography: Hezekiah PECK, Jr., Dodge and Juneau Cos., Wisconsin HEZEKIAH PECK JR. (1820-1856) Contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by Darrell L Peck, USGENWEB NOTICE: In keeping with our policy of providing free genealogy information on the Internet, data may be freely used by non-commercial entities, as long as this message remains on all copied material. These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or presentation by other organizations." Persons or organizations desiring to use this material for purposes other than as stated above, must contact the submitter or the listed USGenWeb archivist. I am sending you some of the chapters from a book I wrote about my PECK ancestors several years ago. Each chapter will be in a separate e-mail message. Each chapter is a collection of the info I have about one male ancestor, so it traces him from place to place. I have marked each chapter (thus: ****NAME OF COUNTY****) to make it easier to sort the info by Wisconsin counties. Darrell Peck CHAPTER X HEZEKIAH PECK JR. (1820-1856) Hezekiah, usually referred to as Hezekiah Jr., was born in Newport, New Hampshire, on May 9, 1820, the second of four children. The census for that year indicates that his parents, Hezekiah Sr. and Ruth, were living there with his grandparents, Henry and Ann Peck. Before the 1830 census, and therefore before Hezekiah Jr. was 10 years old, his grandparents had moved to Harrisburg, Lewis County, New York, as most of their sons and daughters previously had done. Hezekiah Jr.'s parents also had left New Hampshire, but they had moved only to nearby Sharon in Windsor County, Vermont. They must have joined their relatives in New York during Hezekiah Jr.'s teens, however, because by the time of the 1840 census they were all living in Harrisburg, New York. On April 3, 1842, a month before his 22nd birthday, Hezekiah Jr. married Lucinda Ellis, almost three years his senior. Lucinda was born in Vermont, but it is not certain where they were married. Her family probably had moved from Vermont to New York like the Pecks, although it is possible that Hezekiah Jr. had met her in Vermont while his family lived there and then gone back to marry her. In any event, they had the first three of their six children while living in Harrisburg, New York: Smith (Dec. 2, 1842); Mary Ann (Sept. 30, 1844); and Oscar Adelbert (Nov. 13, 1846). ****DODGE COUNTY**** Before May 1850, when he turned 30, Hezekiah Jr., together with his wife, three children, parents, and brother, were living in Dodge County, Wisconsin. Although the exact date is not known, obituaries of Hezekiah Jr.'s children Oscar and Mary indicate that they came to Wisconsin with their parents at ages five and three, respectively. Cordelia, fourth child of Hezekiah Jr. and Lucinda, was born in Wisconsin on February 24, 1850. It is clear is that Hezekiah Jr. and his entire family were living in Dodge County near Beaver Dam in the spring of 1850. The census taken that May listed Hezekiah Jr., Lucinda and their four children, as well as his parents and his brother Sylvester, as living there on Hezekiah Sr.'s 80 acre farm. As will be seen below, Hezekiah Jr. was also staying there with his parents in 1856. Yet, his daughter Cordelia died in or near Mauston in Juneau County on April 6, 1851. This means that Hezekiah Jr.'s family, or at least part of it, was in Juneau County, rather than Dodge County, by early 1851. It is also clear that Hezekiah Jr. and Lucinda were living together during the years in question because they had two more children then: Hannah Sylista (Nov. 6, 1853) and Hezekiah Seth (April 25, 1856). Yet, on April 3, 1856, three weeks before their sixth child was born, Hezekiah Jr. died on his father's farm near Beaver Dam. My own conclusion, based on these ambiguous facts, is that Hezekiah Jr., his pregnant wife and three children came to Wisconsin in the Fall of 1849, and all of them stayed for a while with his parents near Beaver Dam, helping Hezekiah Sr. get settled. Thus they were there when the 1850 census was taken. However, they soon moved on to Juneau County. Hezekiah Jr. must have returned regularly to Dodge County to help his father, then in his 60s, especially when heavy work such as plowing, planting and harvesting needed to be done (all with horses, of course). He may well have stayed with his parents for weeks at a time. It was during such a visit to Dodge County that Hezekiah Jr. died. The circumstances of Hezekiah Jr.'s death were unusual. He had taken a team of horses into Beaver Dam, a distance of a few miles because a large pond (now Beaver Dam Lake) lay between his father's farm and the town. In returning to the farm, he apparently cut across a frozen corner of the pond. The ice gave way, miring the horses in water and mud. In trying to get them out, Hezekiah Jr. received a kick from one of them which injured his leg. He also was in the water and mud for some time before he finally got the team out and could proceed home. He caught a severe cold, or worse, and died a few days later. When Hezekiah Jr. died, it probably was not practical to transport his body to Mauston for burial, nor even for Lucinda, in her ninth month of pregnancy, to come to Beaver Dam. Thus Hezekiah Jr.'s parents made the necessary funeral arrangements. He was buried in a rural cemetery in the Town of Calamus, just three miles south of Hezekiah Sr.'s farm. The inscription on his tombstone reads: HEZEKIAH PECK JR. SON OF H. & R. PECK DIED Apr. 3, 1856 AE 35 ys, 10ms & 24 ds. Behold, my friends, as you pass by, As you are now, so once was I. As I am now, so you must be. Prepare for death and follow me. The stone is still in excellent condition and is a highlight of the cemetery. When Hezekiah Jr. died, his widow Lucinda was 38. She was left with four children ranging in age from 17 to two, and she was eight months pregnant. Her son Oscar was nine. ****JUNEAU COUNTY**** According to a family history, Hezekiah Jr. moved to Lyndon, near Mauston, in Juneau County, Wisconsin, "between 1842-1844." However, the fact that he had three children born in New York between December 1842 and November 1847 makes it doubtful that he was living in Wisconsin on a permanent basis that early. Since all three of those children were conceived in the winter months, though, it may well be that Hezekiah Jr. preceded his family to Wisconsin and spent much of the year there, possibly working a farm, returning to New York only in the off season. Hezehiah Jr.'s daughter Cordelia died in or near Mauston in Juneau County on April 6, 1851. This means that Hezekiah Jr.'s family was in Juneau County, rather than Dodge County, by early 1851. They were living there when Hezehiah Jr. died while helping his parents on their farm in Dodge County. Lucinda and the children were listed in the 1860 census as living in Kildare (post office - Lyndon Station), Juneau County. They must have had a difficult time financially. Smith, at 17 the oldest child, was listed as a laborer. They were not destitute, however, since Lucinda claimed a personal estate of $90. The same census shows Lucinda's in-laws, Hezekiah Sr. and Ruth, still on their farm near Beaver Dam. By the 1870 census, Lucinda, 52, and her five children were living in the Village of Mauston. Her older sister, Hannah Ellis, 63, was living with them. Lucinda's personal estate had grown to $200, and she also owned real estate (their house) worth $800. Smith, 27, and Oscar, 25, were listed as laborers, and Mary Ann, 23, as a dressmaker. Hannah, 16, and Seth (as the last of the Hezekiahs was called), 14, were still in school. By this time, Lucinda's parents-in-law, Hezekiah Sr. and Ruth Peck, were living in Mauston, too, though not in the same house. Lucinda died April 12, 1892, two months before her 75th birthday. She was buried in the Mauston Cemetery in the same plot as her daughters, Cordelia and Hannah, and her sister Hannah. Her inscription reads: In memory of Our Mother LUCINDA E. PECK 1817-1892