However prominent his family may have been, Peck still had to pay his own way through medical school, clerking at a drug store in the summers and teaching school in the winter. He attended Mayville Academy in Mayville, New York starting in 1838 and graduated from Geneva Medical College, having studied under professor Charles E. Burrows, with the class of 1841.
After briefly opening a practice in Warren County, Penn., Peck relocated to Sharon, Ohio, now Sharonville, in 1843. He married for the first of three times just after his arrival in Ohio, wedding Dorothea E. “Dorothy” (Reich or Reick) Peck on Dec. 3, 1843. Dorothea gave birth to three daughters Delia A., Alice I., and Mary Peck, all born in Sharon in 1844, 1847, and 1851, respectively.
The mid-1850s proved to be a time of change for Peck, the most profound of which came in 1855 with the loss of Dorothy, who was buried in her family plot in West Chester Cemetery. Shortly before her death Peck had moved away from medicine, beginning a loan and real estate business with the profits from his practice.
Peck also left Sharon in 1855, heading to Hamilton where he opened a private bank, purchased the West Hamilton Flour Mill, joined the local M.E. Church, and became a freemason. The reason for his location was never revealed to history, though he may have been drawn to Hamilton by his little sister, Delia A. (Peck) Fuller, who had been living in the town since at least 1847.
Not long after his arrival in Hamilton, on June 26, 1855, Peck married his second wife, Eliza (Alston) Peck. Eliza was the recent widow of another medical doctor, John Goultrap Marshall, who had died in 1854.
However, the marriage would be brief with Peck becoming a widower for a second time in early 1858. Peck married for the last, and most significant, time on Nov. 9, 1858. His new bride was Frances (Fitton) Peck, a member of the prominent Fitton family. Together, they had three more children, Robert Peck, John Pascal Paoli Peck, Jr., and James Fitton Peck, whom they raised at the family home at 333 N. Third Street.
Operating one of only two banking firms in Hamilton simultaneous to the maturation of the city’s first generation of manufacturing enterprises, Peck found himself in a uniquely profitable position. He expanded his operation in 1859, opening the Farmer’s Bank in the Rumple Building, now 100-110 Main Street, on the West Side while also maintaining his original bank and collections office in the Jackson Building at the northeast corner of Third and Basin Streets, now 26 S. Third St., on the East Side.
With the onset of the American Civil War in 1861 came the first major controversy in which Peck found himself embroiled. He purchased a controlling interest in the “Hamilton Telegraph” and changed the Democratic newspaper’s allegiance from supporting the Peace Democrats, or “Copperheads,” to the War Democrats, a reflection of his own beliefs.
In response, the Copperheads, who were numerous and politically influential in Hamilton, started their own newspaper, which they called the “True Telegraph,” and organized a run on Peck’s bank which put it out of business and forced him to sell his newspaper interest.
In spite of the controversy, Peck’s demonstrated success and business acumen led to him joining with J.B. Cornell and Samuel D. Fitton, his brother-in-law, to found First National Bank on Aug. 15, 1863.
Peck served as the first cashier of the new bank, whose initial capital of $50,000 rapidly increased to $100,000, making it one of the most influential banks in the region. Although he was a principal founding member of the firm, he did not stay in a leadership role with the bank for long.
In 1864 Peck paid a proxy to enlist on his behalf for service in a 100 days regiment of the Union Army and instead of going to war, went to the country where he began raising livestock and planting timber. However, the agricultural life does not appear to have suited him and it wasn’t long before he was back in business.
Having been a Methodist since 1845, Peck was invited to join other influential Hamilton Methodists, including Judge Alexander Hume, land developer Israel Williams, industrialist Job E. Owens, in considering the establishment of a life insurance company. Partnering with several prominent Cincinnatians, this group founded the Cincinnati based Union Central Life Insurance Company.
Peck became the first vice president of the company and also its first customer, taking out policy No. 1 for $10,000 in life insurance on March 28, 1867.
Working as an agent for the company in Hamilton, Peck was again hugely successful. In 1871, he took a grand tour of Europe and established a pair of timber farms in Hamilton County, totaling about 150 acres, where he exclusively grew black locust trees.
The value of the lumber from these trees was projected in 1882 to be worth around $100,000.
Diversifying his interests, Peck became engaged with land speculation and development. In 1874 he began buying property located in what was then called South Hamilton, including swamp land comprising what was known as the “Big Pond.”
Advertisements claimed that Peck had drained the swamp, though the success of this endeavor was questionable at best, and showed him offering lots in the area for sale, as well as loans for mortgages and Union Central life insurance policies.
In 1875, Peck platted three subdivisions made up of outlots covering the entirety of the property he had acquired which from that point forward became known as “Peck’s Addition.” However, flooding and drainage issues persisted and lot sales were sluggish.
Peck consolidated the area he was selling with his 1879 platting of the “South Hamilton Addition” in the outlots on the east side of Peck’s Addition away from the river.
Peck’s final recorded land transaction involving Peck’s Addition occurred in 1884 around the same time that he left Hamilton for Los Angeles, California where he remained engaged in the real estate business doing a huge amount of sales. Hamiltonian Christian Rothenbush visited him in California in 1888 and reported back to the local newspaper, “he is in good health and making money.”
What Peck left behind in Hamilton was a mess that would turn into another major controversy. Peck had secured a mortgage from Union Central for the platting of his initial three subdivisions, which he was unable to pay back as a result of not being able to sell the flood prone portions of the property. As a result, Union Central sought to foreclose on the property.
However, the lots that Peck had platted and sold off to individual families, who all had individual mortgages, as part of the South Hamilton Addition were also located on this property.
In 1887 money lender Levi Gauker brought suit against Peck as a result of the potential foreclosure of the homes and property of Peck’s Addition residents due to Peck’s failure to pay the mortgage owed to Union Central. Further complicating the issue were low valuations of the property in question. The case lingered for years until finally being decided upon by Judge Ferdinand VanDerveer in 1891.
As a result of the ruling, Union Central was allowed to foreclose on Peck’s Addition and its residents were required to re-purchase their lots and homes.
Peck remained in California for the rest of his life, even going on a prospecting expedition with his sons at one point. He appears to have only returned to Hamilton once, in 1893, though Frances visited in 1888 and 1894.
Peck died at his home in Los Angeles on March 27, 1895 and is buried there in Evergreen Cemetery.
The two financial institutions Peck co-founded grew to achieve major success. First National Bank later became First Financial Bank and as of 2025 held $14.6 million in deposits. Union Central Life Insurance Company remained in operation for 138 years and was later owned by Ameritas Life Insurance Corporation.
Peck’s Addition later became a gateway neighborhood for Appalachian migrants seeking work in Hamilton’s industries.
Brad Spurlock is the manager of the Smith Library of Regional History and Cummins Local History Room, Lane Libraries. A certified archivist, Brad has over a decade of experience working with local history, maintaining archival collections and collaborating on community history projects. He also serves as a board member for Historic Hamilton Inc. and the Butler County Historical Society.
UPCOMING EVENT
For more on the neighborhood and its controversies, visit the Butler County Historical Society, 327 N. Second St. in Hamilton for the presentation “Peck’s Addition: Rediscovering Hamilton’s Forgotten Appalachian Neighborhood” at 10 a.m. and 1 p.m. Jan. 24.
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