John M. Peck
Background
John Murray Peck was born 26 January 1830 at Lebanon, New Hampshire, United States of America. He died on 19 November 1903, and was buried in Brighton Cemetery.[1]
In June 1853 John Peck arrived at Melbourne aboard the Eagle and with Freeman Cobb, James Swanton, and John B. Lamber. They founded a carrying company known as Cobb & Co., which was converted in December 1853 to coaching. The original Cobb & Co. partnership was dissolved in May 1856 and Peck returned to America, visiting Chicago and his hometown Lebanon. He returned to Victoria in 1858 with eight new Concord coaches and a supply of harness. Four of these coaches could carry forty passengers each and had been built to Peck's design. A syndicate known as the Victorian Stage Co. was formed in August 1858 to operate the Concord coaches on the Bendigo line.[2]
Peck was one of the four original partners of Cobb & Co.[3] Known as a coachline proprietor and auctioneer, he was first president of the Associated Stock and Station Agents in 1888, a councillor of the Agricultural Society, a justice of the peace, a councillor of the Borough of Essendon and Flemington (Mayor 1872), a vice-president of the Essendon Football Club, member of the Australian Club and the Victoria Racing Club.[4]
Goldfields Involvement in 1854
Cobb & Co. transported troops to Ballarat before the Eureka Stockade at an exhorbitant price per trooper.[5]
Family
John Peck was the third son of John Waters Peck and his wife Frances (Fanny), née Huntington.[6]
He married Louisa Ellen at Geelong in 1859, and they had eight children.
1. Harry Huntington Peck (became a noted stock auctioneer and was author of Memoirs of a Stockman, Melbourne, 1942)[7]
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
Also See
- ↑ K. A. Austin, 'Peck, John Murray (1830–1903)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/peck-john-murray-4385/text7139, published first in hardcopy 1974, accessed online 30 August 2018.
- ↑ K. A. Austin, 'Peck, John Murray (1830–1903)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/peck-john-murray-4385/text7139, published first in hardcopy 1974, accessed online 30 August 2018.
- ↑ Information from descendant David Moore, 2018.
- ↑ State Library Catalogue entry Accession no: H2005.37/50
- ↑ Information from descendant David Moore, 2018.
- ↑ K. A. Austin, 'Peck, John Murray (1830–1903)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/peck-john-murray-4385/text7139, published first in hardcopy 1974, accessed online 30 August 2018.
- ↑ K. A. Austin, 'Peck, John Murray (1830–1903)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/peck-john-murray-4385/text7139, published first in hardcopy 1974, accessed online 30 August 2018.
