Birth and Family
Jesse was born on 4 April 1811 in Middlefield Center, Otsego County, New York. His family was of English heritage, traceable back to the fifteenth century and known in heraldry. Henry Peck came to America in 1837. The Bishop's grandfather, also named Jesse, died in Washington's army. The Bishop's father, Luther, was a blacksmith and lifelong class leader, whose five sons (of whom Jesse T. was the youngest) all became Methodist preachers. The trend in his family toward the Methodist ministry led his great-nephew, Stephen Crane, to say: "Upon my mother's side, everyone in my family became a Methodist clergyman as soon as they could walk, the ambling-nag, saddlebag, exhorting kind."
Read more about this topic: Jesse Truesdell Peck
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