Amador County Biographies

PALMER N. PECK

Transcribed by Peggy Hooper

This file is part of the California Genealogy & History Archives
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cagha/index.htm


The subject of the following sketch, is a native of New York State, having been born in Yates, Orleans 
county, December 23, 1831. During his youth he removed with his parents to the State of Michigan, 
where he remained until nineteen years of age. He had during these years acquired a good education, 
and after leaving school entered a plow factory at Peru, Illinois, where he was employed about one 
year. The western fever fastened itself upon him and like thousands of others he took up a line of 
march toward the setting sun, crossing the plains in 1852, and spending that Winter in Salt Lake City, 
Utah. The following Spring he continued his journey to California, arriving by the southern route in 
San Bernardino on the 15th of May, 1853. 

After a stay of about three months in that town he removed to Stockton, San Joaquin county, where 
he had a step-brother. For the next three years he was engaged in business in that place, generally
 merchandising. He then became a trader in the southern mines, and for two years did an extensive 
business. Giving up this last enterprise he went to Tuolumne county and engaged in mining operations, 
which proved very unprofitable for him. 

His next move was to Volcano, Amador county, where he has since resided, and generally engaged 
in mining, owning at the present time some thirty- one acres of " mining ground," from which he will 
undoubtedly realize a handsome fortune, as he fully understands manipulating such enterprises. He is 
also interested in flumes and mines in other places. 

Mr. Peck is well and favorably known throughout the mines of California as a man of experience and 
worth, and is universally respected. He is still a single man and his elegant home is without a 
mistress. 

History of Amador, California With Illustrations and Biographical Sketches 
of its Prominent Men and PioneersOakland, California, Thompson and West, 
1881.