52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks: Week 3: Ann Matilda Tipler Peck

Ann Matilda Tipler Peck

I am always interested in finding immigration stories about my ancestors. The Pecks emigrated from England in the mid 1800s. They seemed to have thrived here.  There must be hundreds of descendants from this couple.  Maybe some day I will try and figure that out.

It was their son George who left Neenah, WI and went west to the Dakota Territory where he met Nyda Beliel (week one) in 1883.


My 3x great grandmother, Ann Matilda Tipler was born on 25 Oct 1835 in Garrid, Lincolnshire, England (130 miles north of London) as the sixth of twelve children.

Age 16:  Ann married John William Peck, on 16 Oct 1853 in Timberland, Lincolnshire, England, and they had 14 children in 23 years.  She had her first baby at age 18 and her last at age 42.


Age 22: Ann emigrated from Liverpool to New York on 02 Jan 1858 on the ship "Calhoun". She sailed with her two brothers in law and one sister in law and her two children Lizzie (5) and Billy (3).

“When my mother, Ann, came to this country, she was on a sailing vessel 7 weeks.  She said the journey was fraught by several storms, so that things rolled from side to side on the vessel and was endured by much discomfort.”   Excerpts from a letter written by Ann’s daughter Grace.  (She was the only member of her family to emigrate:  her parents and siblings all stayed in England)

About one year earlier, her husband John and his brother Henry sailed on the Jeremiah Thompson Ship and arrived in New York on 22 Dec 1856.  (5 of the 6 Peck siblings emigrated from England to the US)

 “John and Ann lived in (Leavenworth, Kansas Territory) where Ann operated a bakery.  I've heard my mother tell often she took in $35 before breakfast.  Now that was way back in 1863, so that was considered quite a sizable sum.

As near as I remember, from my mother telling me, they moved to Cherry Valley (Illinois).  There they operated what was known as “The White Horse Inn.”  That place is where the mail riders use to change horses on their long routes of delivery.  It was at this same place that George (age 2) fell off the porch and broke his hip.  That was the cause of his one leg being shorter than the other, which made him lame for the rest of his life.

It was at this White Horse Inn, that they heard quite a commotion under the porch and John found that a big snake had swallowed several baby chicks.  He got a pitch fork and held the snake thru its head and then proceeded to cut in between the lumps on the snake’s body and thus brought out all the little chicks alive. Now this was told me as a true incident.

Ann was quite a horse woman.  She owned a spirited black mare in Cherry Valley, and used to ride the range.

As near as I can make out the folks moved to Neenah, Wisconsin in 1868.  They lived in rented places for quite a few years and then bought the old Tipplers place. The purchase price was $450.  I can remember as a very small child (ca 1877) as the Indians in their red blankets would come to the back door for handouts—used to scare the life out of me.

There we had 3 teams of horses as John used to carry freight from Neenah to Green Bay; also had 3 cows & sold milk at 4¢ a quart.”  Excerpts from a letter written by Ann’s daughter Grace.

Ann died on April 20, 1916, in Wausau, Wisconsin, at the age of 80, and was buried in Neenah, Wisconsin.

Her husband John died 3 years later on 3 Sep 1919 in Roundup, MT at age 88, and was buried in Neenah, Wisconsin.

Sources:

• Excerpt of letter from Grace Peck Hunt to grand-niece Bettye Whitehouse Clothier c. early 1967 (about age 93). Submitted by tiarella9 to ancestry.com 2011
• 1841 England Census
• 1851 England Census
• England & Wales, FreeBMD Marriage Index: 1837-1915
• New York, Passenger Lists, 1820-1957
• 1859, 1865  Kansas State Census
• 1860, 1870, 1880, 1900, 1910 US Federal Census
• Wisconsin, Find A Grave Index, 1836-2012
• The Daily Northwestern Newspaper 1916
• Montana Death Index, 1907-2007
• RaymondBanks24 originally shared the church picture and passenger list on ancestry.com
• tiarella9 originally submitted this marriage certificate and photos of John and Ann on ancestry.com