Sheldon Peck, son of Jacob and Elizabeth Peck, was born in Cornwall, Vermont, on August 26, 1797. He married Harriet Corey on September 15, 1824.
In 1828, the Peck family moved to Jordan, New York, where Sheldon became active as a portraitist and bought a fifty acre plot of land.
In 1836, Sheldon moved to Chicago. It was here that Sheldon tried to find success as a portraitist.
However, the economic panic of 1837 left few clients for Peck. It was then that the Peck family sold their Chicago property for a wagon and a team of oxen and moved twenty miles west of Chicago to a town called Babcock's Grove, the former name of Lombard . The family pre-empted approximately 80 acres of land, eventually gaining a land grant signed by President John Tyler in 1843, having purchased it for $1.25 an acre.
An 1840 census listed Sheldon Peck's occupation as farmer. The 1850 census recorded his occupation as a portrait painter. Harriet Peck, his wife, was known to produce cheese for the local market and would likely have been involved in processing wool into cloth.
By 1853 the family had grown to ten children.
Sheldon lived on the farm until he died of pneumonia on March 19, 1868.
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Sheldon and Harriet Peck
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The Peck Homestead |
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