Encyclopedia of Connecticut biography, genealogical-memorial ...

Fifth Avenue Hotel, New York; honor-
ary member of Company K, First Regiment,
Connecticut State Militia; member
of Company B, Twenty-second Regiment
Volunteers, War of the Rebellion, 1862
and 1863; honorary member of Old Guard,
Washington, D. C, July, 1890. He was
the first one of five young men who orig-
inated the Wide Awake Torch Light
Marching Campaign Club for the elec-
tion of W. A. Buckingham, Governor,
February 25, i860. The enthusiasm cre-
ated extended all over the State, resulted
in his election, and in the fall clubs were
formed in all the northern States, creating
great enthusiasm in the campaign and
election of Abraham Lincoln, President.
He served as colonel on staff at the
inauguration of Presidents McKinley and
Roosevelt, March 4, 1897, and also of
Roosevelt and Fairbanks at Washington,
D. C, March 4, 1901.
Mr. Yergason married Emeline B.
Moseley, daughter of D. B. Moseley, of
Hartford, and they were the parents of
two daughters, and a son, Robert M., who
is a physician with the rank of captain in
the United States Army, of the World
War.
PECK, Austin Lemuel,
Business Man.
Since 1887 a resident of Hartford and
prominent in the business life of his
adopted city, Mr. Peck, as treasurer of
the Andrews & Peck Company, is also
well and favorably known throughout the
State as an able business man, especially
prominent in the lumber trade. He is a
son of Zalmon S. Peck, of Newton, Con-
necticut, and a descendant of Joseph
Peck, of Milford, Connecticut, the American
ancestor of his branch of the Peck
family.
Joseph Peck, first of New Haven, set-
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY
163
tled in Milford, about 1649, becoming a
member of the church there in 1652. He
died in 1700-01. From Joseph Peck the
line of descent is through his son, Joseph
(2) Peck, of Milford ; his son, Ephraim
Peck, of Newtown; his son, Henry Peck,
of Newtown, a soldier of the Revolution,
who died in 1812; his son, Ezekiel Peck,
a soldier of the War of 1812, whose tomb-
stone and those of his father, grandfather
and great-grandfather, are standing in
perfect condition in the family burial plot
in Newtown Cemetery ; his son, Zalmon
S. Peck, of Newtown; his son, Austin L.
Peck, of further mention.
Zalmon S. Peck, son of Ezekiel and
Betsey (Briscoe) Peck, was born at New-
town, Connecticut, May 22, 1812, died
1904, having reached the extreme age of
ninety-two years. During his active years
he was one of the prominent public men
of his community, serving during the
Civil War as enrolling and drafting offi-
cer, and for twenty-six years was post-
master of Newtown, first appointed during
President Lincoln's first term. These
were years of continuous service with the
exception of two years (1867-69) under
the Johnson administration, when he was
out of office. Time dealt lightly with
him, and even when nearly a nona-
genarian he was remarkably well pre-
served, an active and interesting conver-
sationalist. He married, in 1833, Polly
J. Lum, who died in 1898. Their children
were : Sarah A., deceased ; Henry S.,
died August, 1913, in Waterbury, Connecticut;
Austin L., of further mention;
Mary F., widow of Colonel R. S. Chevis,
of Zenith, Georgia.
Austin L. Peck was born in Newtown,
Connecticut, June 3, 1844, now treasurer
of the Andrews & Peck Company, Hart-
ford, Connecticut. He was educated in the
public schools and Newtown Academy,
leaving the Academy walls to enlist in