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JOSEPH ADDISON PECK Tombstone reads: "In memory of Joseph A. and Ellen L. Peck United in marriage August 10, 1854. Divided by death October 14, 1886. Reunited August 9, 1906"
JOSEPH ADDISON PECK, was born in Giles County, Virginia on 6-01-1812. He died in Rockwall County, Texas on 10-14-1886. His parents were John PECK (b. 09-10-1772; d. 10-31-1848) and Elizabeth SNIDOW PECK (b. 02-10-1787; d. 06-14-1860). The John Peck family was apparently in good financial standing. A section on John Peck in a genealogy book states, "John Peck was High Sheriff of Giles County for a period including the year 1842"...and "[John Peck] acquired many valuable farms." The home was described as a plantation called "Springfield," located six miles from Pearisburg, Giles County, Virginia. John PECK and Elizabeth SNIDOW were married in Montgomery County, Virginia, on February 26, 1801. Their marriage produced fourteen children with Joseph Addison being the sixth child. The will of John Peck, written in 1846 and amended in 1847, names Joseph Addison Peck as an executor and lists (in seven typed pages) bequests of many thousands of dollars, pieces of property, and slaves to his wife and his children.
Joseph was identified as "a lawyer who gave up his practice to remain at home with his mother in compliance with the terms of his father's will ... He invested everything he could in the Confederacy; then he was guardian to two boys ... he used some of their money to build and install a big flour mill on a creek ... at Springfield. The stream got out of bounds and washed the mill away. He became so involved that he sold the plantation for twenty-five thousand dollars, and paid his debts." From Springfield, Joseph and Ellen moved to Bristol, Virginia, in 1870 where they resided for seven years; before moving to Texas in 1877. Joseph's granddaughter, Nora (Nona) McChesney Hanby wrote, "Grandpa never tried to manage the business after coming to Texas. He turned the management over to Grandma [Ellen Baker Peck] and Uncle Joe [Joseph Vawter Peck]." With regard to participation in the Civil War, Nona wrote, "My Grandfather was ... too old to go to war [50 years old] when it came. He was forty years old when he married and his children were almost babies at the time. He had several nephews killed in the war. He stayed home where he was kept busy looking after the women and children whose husbands and fathers were fighting. He saw that they had something to eat, food got mighty scarce before the war was over and I imagine he had a time finding food lots of the time." Joseph Peck lived less than ten years after the move to Texas in 1877.
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Joseph Addison Peck |