John Mason Peck

John Mason Peck (1789-1858), a pioneer Baptist preacher, author, and educator, left his New England home in 1817 with a vision to bring learning and the gospel into the undeveloped West. With his wife Sally and their three children, he endured an arduous four-month journey in a small one-horse wagon and settled in Rock Spring near O'Fallon, Illinois. There, in 1827, he founded Rock Spring Seminary, the first institution of its kind in Illinois. In 1831, he established on this site the school that became Shurtleff College after the seminary was moved to the growing city of Alton, and in 1836 the name was changed in recognition of a $10,000 gift from Dr. Benjamin Shurtleff of Boston. A missionary and teacher, author and editor, geographer and cartographer, and promoter of churches, schools, and western settlement, Peck was for thirty years one of the strongest advocates of education and righteousness in the Mississippi Valley. He traveled hundreds of miles by horseback or wagon under difficult circumstances while his wife and children bore his long absences with fortitude. He was also one of the foremost ministerial opponents of slavery in Illinois and gave important support to Governor Edward Coles' successful anti-slavery effort in 1824. In 1851, Harvard University honored him with a Doctor of Divinity degree. He died on March 16, 1858, and was buried in Bellefontaine Cemetery in St. Louis.

Alton, Illinois · United States