GEORGE WILBUR PECK Biography - Other artists & entretainers

 
 

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GEORGE WILBUR PECK

Name: George Wilbur Peck                                                           
Born: 28 September 1840                                                             
Died: 16 April 1916                                                                 
                                                                                   
George Wilbur Peck (September 28, 1840 - April 16, 1916) was an American writer     
and politician who served as the 17th governor of Wisconsin.                       
                                                                                   
Peck was born in Henderson, New York, in 1840 and moved to Wisconsin as a           
toddler in 1843. In Wisconsin, he was a newspaper publisher who founded             
newspapers in Ripon and La Crosse. His La Crosse newspaper, The Sun, was founded   
in 1874. In 1878 Peck moved the newspaper to Milwaukee and renamed it Peck's Sun.   
The weekly newspaper contained humorous writings of Peck's including his famous     
"Peck's Bad Boy" stories.                                                           
                                                                                   
In the spring of 1890 Peck ran for mayor of Milwaukee. A Democrat, Peck was         
elected in spite of a Republican majority in the city. The state's Democratic       
leaders took notice and made Peck the party's nominee for the 1890 gubernatorial   
race. Peck won the election, beating the incumbent William Hoard, and resigned     
as Milwaukee's mayor on November 11, 1890. He was reelected as governor in 1892,   
defeating Republican John C. Spooner, but lost a third term to William Upham in     
1894. He ran again in 1904 but lost to the incumbent Robert M. La Follette, Sr.     
                                                                                   
Peck died in 1916 at age 75 due to what was known as Bright's disease and was       
buried at Forest Home Cemetery. After Peck's death, his "Peck's Bad Boy"           
writings became the basis for several films.