Readers: Our July 9, 2008 column, which mentioned Peck Lake Park in Hobe Sound, sparked a note from Susan Peck McCannon of Rochester, N.Y., who is descended from Samuel H. Peck's fourth son, Leroy (1835-1904). Excerpts:
"He did not move to Florida until 1843 and left by 1846. Also, it was his son who later became a noted educator and author, not Samuel.
"In 1887, I am told, William Henry wrote a series of articles for the Florida Star newspaper. He describes the experiences in St. Lucie. I have only seen snippets of these, but what I have seen are fantastic and a descriptive account of the experiences.
"Samuel was born in Connecticut in 1798 to a family that dated prominently back to Puritan times. He went to Georgia as a peddler in 1815.
"He married a young widow named Sarah Homes Pate in 1828. They had a eight children and a prosperous lifestyle. The children were well educated in a series of boarding schools; at least the older boys were.
On April 17, 1843, he applied for Permit 63, land 3 miles south of Gilbert's Bar.
"Samuel went to St. Lucie with three of his sons, leaving the rest of the kids in Augusta with his wife.
"Peck's home, in the area that would later be known as Ankona, was by far the most prestigious. He had ordered it framed in at Savannah and brought it down on his schooner, the William Washington.
"In 1845, Peck sold out to Capt. Mills O. Burnham, who was the first to grow pineapples at Ankona Bluff.
"Samuel served in the Mexican War out of New Orleans in 1846, and had his first child by the second wife in the same year.
"Samuel apparently never got comfortable with the idea of slavery. When the Civil War broke out, he was firmly pro-North along with his son William Henry but the rest of his sons fought for the Confederacy.
"Samuel died in New Orleans in 1862."
Read More: Historic Jensen and Eden on Florida's Indian River, by Sandra Henderson Thurlow, and History of Martin County, by Janet Hutchinson
