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Peck & Sons
Peck & Sons
Peck & Sons
Image on page:
Top, Peck Farm as it lokks today, preserved for nature and historical study by the Geneva Park District, 1999 Brian Kroening, Geneva Park District;
Milldle, A ram purchased by a ranch in South Africa will be shipped from Peck Farm accompanied by farmhand by Harry Jones, 1923;
Bottom, George Peck and sister Juia Peck at the Peck family farm in Geneva, Ill., circa 19116.
Peck & Sons

17 | Illinois Parks and Recreation | May / June 2000


Special Focus
Preserving the Past - and future - at Peck Farm in Geneva
BY Dilip Das

This land is beautiful. In Geneva, Ill., 35 miles west of Chicago, 364 acres of public open space stretch without interruption for as far as the eye can see to the north and south. There is a shallow 18-acre lake, surrounded by trees at one end and sloping up into prairie plants and cornfields. On the highest rise above the lake, with a panoramic view of the rolling glacial countryside, sits a cluster of buildings forming the core of a unique public park.

Owned and operated by the Geneva Park District, Peck Farm Park is the realized dream of many people who saw a golden opportunity to preserve a slice of our heritage. Inside the large 1869 Italianate brick house, designated as a Kane County Historical Landmark, the pine wood floors glow from all the light streaming into six-foot tall original windows.

Hanging from one corner of the History Room is a very old ox yoke, found in the dark rambling basement of the house after the Peck family had left. The History room was designed as a tribute to the Pecks, who had occupied this site since receiving the homestead deed in 1844. The ox yoke is a symbol of Peck Farm's beginning.

On a spring morning in 1998—seven years since the Geneva Park District purchased the farm property and buildings—I sat in 84-year-old Marion (Peck) Behling's kitchen in St. Charles, talking to her and her brother, Tom Peck, about their family history. I was searching for relevant items to display in the History Room at Peck Farm Park, but what I got was much more. Through their stories and photos and remembrances, I was able to piece together a slice of American history that is similar, in a way, to so many of our own family histories. It's the story of renewal, entrepreneurial determination, growth, disappointment, and renewal again.

How will we know it's us without our past?
-John Steinbeck, The Grapes of Wrath, 1939

Peck Pioneers
We are creatures of endless detailed curiosity.
We revel in the details of history, because they are the source of our being.
– Stephen Jay Gould 1989

Marion Behling and Tom Peck are two of the three children of Seth Peck, one of the four brothers who owned Peck Farm's merino sheep operation during its heyday from the 1860s through 1910. At the peak of their operation, the Peck's owned 1,600 of acres of land in Geneva, Ill., that supported more than 2,000

19 | Illinois Parks and Recreation | May / June 2000


merino sheep, known mostly for their soft, exceptional wool.

Peck & Sons
Peck & Sons
Peck & SonsBottom: The patriarch, Eli Peck, circa 1890.
Photo at top:
Siblings Tom and Marion Peck, children of Seth Peck, feed a baby sheep. Today, at age 84, Marion (Peck) Behling still cares for a flock of more than 100 merinos at her home in St. Charles.


Middle: The four Peck brothers of Eli Peck & Sons: Frank, George, Seth and Albert, circa 1870.

Behling, though in her eighties, had never lost her affection for merinos. A widow, she now lives in St. Charles with her dog and two cats, and a herd of more than 100 merino sheep, which she tends by herself to this day. Each spring she gets down on her knees and helps 80 to 90 of her ewes give birth to baby lambs. Such is the way of the Peck Family: clean-living, practical, hard-working, right on down the generations.

Behling said she knew about the ox yoke. It was the one her grandfather, Eli Peck used to travel via ox-pulled wagon from the state of Vermont to Geneva. Like thousands of Americans with dreams of owning land and directing their own futures, Eli and Jerusha Peck left Vermont and their extended families in 1843 to homestead the vast stretches of Illinois territory that the U.S. government was selling at deep discounts, about $2 per acre.

Why was the land so cheap? The Blackhawk Wars of 1835, just eight years before, had forced the removal of the Fox, Sauk, and Pottawatomie Indians to reservations on the other side of the Mississippi River. Some Pottawatomie remained, however, and down through the stories of time, Marion Behling revealed to me how Eli, Jerusha, and their two young kids were helped by those Indians; how the new pioneers, together with people who had lost the land, built a shelter for the young Peck family.

A way of life for one culture had ended violently, and the government was eager to settle the newly won land quickly with prices that were too good to be true. Easterners and immigrants flocked to Illinois to begin their new lives. These 18th-century entrepreneurs poured their energies into the community of Geneva.

By late-1836, a group of settlers from Massachusetts arrived in Geneva. By 1840, Geneva had a courthouse and jail, a post office, a classroom and teacher, a bridge, a sawmill, at least three general stores, a doctor, a furniture and coffin maker, at least two blacksmiths, two hotels and a tavern. There were log cabins and some modest frame and stone houses. All these local trades served the growing number of settlers who came to own land and farm.

After nearly 60 years of success in the Peck family's renown merino sheep farm, a shock wave suddenly shattered the business when the first synthetic material, orlon, was introduced. The brothers held on to their wool supplies, and despite a small spike in wool demand during World War I, the business never regained its hold.

After two of the brothers died, the farm was split between Seth Peck and his children and Frank Peck. During the Depression, the house and farm were rented and much of the land sold off to pay the bills.

Peck Preservation
Every American has the right as part of his cultural heritage to stand in grass as high as his head in order to feel some small measure of history coursing his veins and personally establish an aesthetic bond with the past.
— William H. Elder 1961

Lt. Commander George Peck received an honorable discharge from the Navy following World War II, and soon returned to Geneva where he took over Peck Farm with his wife Erdene. Following his family tradition, he built a successful cattle feedlot at Peck Farm, growing all the grain necessary on 470 acres to feed over 500 head of cattle. George and Erdene were active in the Geneva community, serving on church committees and the school board while raising the fourth generation of Peck's in the old brick house.

Nearing retirement in the late-1980s, the Pecks observed the rapid development of nearby farms into shopping malls and subdivisions. Their attachment to

20 | Illinois Parks and Recreation | May / June 2000


the land where four generations of Pecks grew up was so strong that they decided to seek a buyer who would preserve the land.

Rapid development also meant the need for more park land. Steve Persinger, director of the Geneva Park District, was looking for land to accommodate the increasing number of residents who were involved in both traditional recreational sports and alternative interests such as nature walking trails and environmental education. Persinger saw the potential to preserve the buildings and plant acres of prairie at Peck Farm, with plenty of room left over for softball and soccer fields.

In 1991, with eight developers pursuing their land for upscale housing, the Peck's sold a total of 131 acres to the park district, including all historic buildings, for a price below offers from developers. The lake and wetlands area sold for $12,000 an acre, while the remaining land sold for $19,000 an acre.

Open Space for All, Forever
All mankind is entering a new age, and world trends are beginning to obey new laws and logic.
– Mikhail Gorbachev, 1990

In Geneva, people are sending a very clear and powerful message to local governments: preserve open space and preserve our heritage, before it's too late.

First, in 1995, voters approved the redevelopment of Peck Farm Park into prairie, an environmental education center, and ballfields. Then, voters approved a $10 million city of Geneva open space referendum in 1997 by 82 percent. They approved a $70 million Kane County Forest Preserve land acquisition referendum in 1999 by 80 percent. And on March 21, 2000, voters approved a $7.9 million Geneva Park District open space referendum by 78 percent.

Three local governmental agencies, and four overwhelming approvals for more open space. This is a trend, and it's not just Geneva, it's everywhere that open space still exists. Recently, Chicago collar counties Will, Kendall, DuPage, and Lake also passed successful open space referenda. Voters are asking for some moderation to the fast pace of suburban sprawl, and a break from the traffic congestion that is a direct result from sprawl.

Peck Farm Park is the anti-sprawl. Today residents can climb the new stairs inside the old grain silo for spectacular views of their public, preserved land.

They can register for classes that reveal the wonders of nature. They can enjoy music and art in the refurbished Orientation Barn. Families can set off on footpaths and bike trails winding through the prairie landscape that the Pecks first saw in 1843.

And they can tour the old house and learn a little about nature and the rich cultural legacy left for all of us through the wishes and stories of a strong and caring family. 

Photo at left: Seth Peck shows a prize ram to a Geneva school group, circa 1934.
Below:
Similarly, today school groups from Geneva and neighboring communities come to Peck Farm Park to learn. Here, students from Geneva Middle School sample water quality in the surrounding pond.

Dilip Das
is the manager of Natural Areas and Interpretation for the Geneva Park District, ddas.genevaparks@inil.com.

21 | Illinois Parks and Recreation | May / June 2000


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