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John Mason Peck was born in the parish of Litchfield, South Farms, Conn., Oct. 31, 1789. His conversion took place in 1807, when he was eighteen years of age. He first united with the Congregational church in Litchfield. Removing, in 1811, to Windham, Greene Co., N. Y., he became acquainted with the Baptists through the church, and through the pastor, Rev. H. Harvey, in the adjoining town of New Durham. He had already become doubtful of Pedobaptist views and practices, and now, after further inquiry, having fully abandoned those views, he was baptized, Sept. 14, 1811, uniting with the church in New Durham. On the next day, by invitation of the church, he preached his first sermon, and was immediately licensed, and in 1813 was ordained as pastor of the Baptist church in Catskill. After a brief pastorate here, and another at Amenia, in Dutchess County, he accepted an agency in behalf of foreign missions, laboring under the guidance of Rev. Luther Rice. He then, 1816-17, had a year of study under Dr. Stoughton, of Philadelphia. He was then appointed a missionary of the board of the Terrennial Convention, to labor in St. Louis and vicinity. Thus began his Western career. July 25, 1817, he set out, with his wife and three children, in a covered wagon, upon the long journey of 1200 miles to his field of labor, and on the 1st of December reached St. Louis. His associate, Rev. James E. Welch, had reached the field before him. In 1822 he became a resident of Rock Spring, Ill., and this remained his home until his death.
At Rock Spring, Dr. Peck, in connection with his missionary labors, now under the appointment of the Massachusetts Baptist Missionary Society, established a seminary for general and theological education, being aided in this, to some extent, by Eastern friends. The seminary was certainly a successful one. It is said to have had at one time one hundred students. As another sphere of auxiliary labor, he began, April 25, 1828, the publication of a paper, -- the Western Pioneer and Baptist. His work in preaching, meantime, covered a very wide region; while all the affairs of the Territory, soon to become the State of Illinois, engaged his intelligent and active interest. In due time the Rock Spring Seminary became united with the seminary at Upper Alton, now Shurtleff College. Dr. Peck, aside from other labors, wrote largely. Among his works were "A Biography of Father Clark," "Emigrant's Guide," "Gazetteer of Illinois," "Annals of the West," and other works. He died at Rock Spring, March 24, 1857, in the sixty-eighth year of his
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age. He was a man of many remarkable qualities, robust in intellect, strong in purpose, positive in his opinions, and bold in their advocacy, a born missionary, and a thorough-going Western man.============ [From William Cathcart, editor, The Baptist Encyclopedia, 1881, rpt. 1988, pp. 892-893. - jrd]
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