Biography: Harry PECK (1901-1951) Juneau Co., Wisconsin 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 HARRY PECK (1901-1951) Harry Lyle Peck was born in Mauston, Juneau County, Wisconsin, January 14, 1901, the oldest of nine children. His parents then lived at Camp Douglas, fifteen miles northwest of Mauston. By the time of the 1910 census, the family had moved to Mauston, and Harry, age 9, had seven siblings. Another was born the following year. Harry's father, Fred, was a day laborer, doing whatever temporary work and odd jobs he could get. Apparently the hard life and frequent pregnancies (nine children in 10 1/2 years) took a heavy toll on Harry's mother, Jane. She died of bronchial pneumonia in 1912, barely 36 years old. Harry was 11; his youngest brother, only eight months. Following their mother's death, six of the eight surviving children were placed with other families. Two of these were formally adopted. The children never again lived together as a family. Harry may have been more fortunate than some of his siblings. At least he stayed with his father. Shortly after Jane's death, Fred moved to Nekoosa to work in a new lumber mill, taking Harry and his brother Frank, 7, with him . Not long after, they moved to Dousman, Waukesha County, Wisconsin, where for several years he operated a farm for Dr. John B. Edwards, a Mauston physician. The boys' grandfather, Oscar, stayed with them on the farm. This arrangement with Dr. Edwards continued to about 1919. At that time, Harry, now 18, struck out on his own. For the first few months, he lived in Waukesha and worked in a foundry in Milwaukee. During this time, in November 1919, he met Leona Biwer, who lived in Milwaukee, at a dance in nearby Hales Corners. He saw her only a few times because the next month he enlisted in the Marine Corps for two years. After training at Parris Island, South Carolina, he served 15 months in Haiti. On his return, he was selected to participate in the ceremonies culminating in the dedication of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Arlington National Cemetery on November 11, 1921. Then, for the final month of his enlistment, he served on detached duty as a guard on a mail train. He was discharged from the Marine Corps in Chicago in December 1921. His total pay for two years of service as a Private was $448.74. Harry and Leona had exchanged letters frequently while he was in the Marines, and he stopped off in Milwaukee to see her over Christmas, 1921, on his way back to Mauston by train. This was the beginning of a two year courtship. Harry and Leona were married in Milwaukee on February 28, 1924. They settled in Milwaukee. They had four children: Jeannette (1924); Donald (1926); Darrell (1931) and Lois (1932). Early in the morning on Mothers' Day, May 13, 1951, Harry collapsed and died during an asthma attack. He was buried in St. Mathias Catholic Cemetery in Milwaukee. Leona died in Lakeview Hospital, Wauwatosa, on August 29, 1983, at the age of 84. She was buried beside Harry.