Encyclopedia of Connecticut biography, genealogical-memorial ...
Encyclopedia of Connecticut biography, genealogical-memorial ...
Encyclopedia of Connecticut biography, genealogical-memorial ...
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the Union army, August 25, 1862. He<br />
first entered the service as a private in<br />
Company C, Twenty-third Regiment,<br />
<strong>Connecticut</strong> Volunteer Infantry, recruited<br />
in Fairfield and New Haven counties dur-<br />
ing the months <strong>of</strong> August and September,<br />
1862. He was mustered into the United<br />
States service with his regiment at Camp<br />
Terry, New Haven, <strong>Connecticut</strong>, Novem-<br />
ber 14, 1862; C. E. L. Homes, colonel <strong>of</strong><br />
the regiment; David H. Miller, major;<br />
Charles W. Worden, lieutenant-colonel<br />
Julius Sanford, captain <strong>of</strong> Company C.<br />
The Twenty-third left <strong>Connecticut</strong>, November<br />
17, 1862, and joined General<br />
Banks at Camp Buckingham, Long<br />
Island, serving under the command <strong>of</strong><br />
General Franz Sigel. The regiment's<br />
first service was in the Department <strong>of</strong><br />
the Gulf, in the defense <strong>of</strong> New Orleans,<br />
and from December, 1862, was a part <strong>of</strong><br />
the Second Brigade, Second Division,<br />
Nineteenth Army Corps, and from June,<br />
1863, was stationed at Post <strong>of</strong> Brashear,<br />
District <strong>of</strong> LaFouche, Defenses <strong>of</strong> New<br />
Orleans, and Department <strong>of</strong> the Gulf.<br />
Until taken prisoner at Bayou Boueff,<br />
Louisiana, June 23, 1863, the experi-<br />
ences <strong>of</strong> the regiment were those <strong>of</strong> Mr.<br />
Peck, his army record being honorable<br />
and meritorious. He was rated a cor-<br />
poral, November 14, 1862, and after his<br />
capture was paroled on July 3, and mustered<br />
out <strong>of</strong> the service with honorable<br />
discharge, August 31, 1863.<br />
With the ending <strong>of</strong> his military career,<br />
his active business life began, and now,<br />
a half century later, he reviews a busi-<br />
ness career <strong>of</strong> success and prosperity<br />
most gratifying. In January, 1864, he<br />
became a clerk in the general store <strong>of</strong><br />
Benedict, Merriman & Company, at Wa-<br />
terbury, <strong>Connecticut</strong>, and after an experi-<br />
ence <strong>of</strong> one year, entered the employ <strong>of</strong><br />
the Hartford, Providence & Fishkill Rail-<br />
road as freight clerk at Hartford, soon<br />
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY<br />
164<br />
afterward being promoted agent in charge<br />
<strong>of</strong> the Waterbury Station. Early in 1869<br />
he became a partner with Chester Cur-<br />
tis in the lumber business, but a year<br />
later they dissolved, Mr. Peck continuing<br />
the business alone on Meadow street until<br />
1887, when he moved to Hartford, where<br />
he has since resided. He continued his<br />
lumber business in Waterbury until 1898,<br />
then reorganized it as the Brass City<br />
Lumber Company, retaining a controlling<br />
interest and serving the corporation as<br />
president. Prior to the organization <strong>of</strong><br />
that company, he formed the Big Rapids<br />
Door and Blind Manufacturing Company<br />
<strong>of</strong> Waterbury, <strong>Connecticut</strong> ; located the<br />
mills <strong>of</strong> the company at Big Rapids, Michigan<br />
; was the largest stockholder and<br />
treasurer <strong>of</strong> the company, which con-<br />
tinued in active successful operation until<br />
its plant was totally destroyed by fire,<br />
June 14, 1900.<br />
Mr. Peck organized the Capital City<br />
Lumber Company <strong>of</strong> Hartford, was its<br />
first president, but later sold his interest<br />
in that company and retired from its<br />
management. Since then he has been an<br />
active member <strong>of</strong> the Andrews & Peck<br />
Company, is its treasurer, and deeply<br />
interested in its successful operation.<br />
The company manufactures doors, sash<br />
and blinds, in fact, all the usual mill planing<br />
mill output. This company was<br />
formed in 1885, Horace Andrews, a salesman<br />
in Mr. Peck's employ, at Waterbury,<br />
becoming a partner and later becoming<br />
its manager. Andrews & Peck continued<br />
successfully as a firm until 1905, when<br />
the business was incorporated with Mr.<br />
Peck as its treasurer. There have been<br />
no blank periods in Mr. Peck's life, from<br />
the time he entered the army, a lad <strong>of</strong><br />
eighteen. He has labored with body and<br />
brain and that he has achieved fortune<br />
and prominence is not as a result <strong>of</strong> for-<br />
tuitous circumstances, but <strong>of</strong> intelligent,