Professors of Alabama: David L. Peck

David Lamb Peck (b. Abt. 1843; d. March 26, 1888)

Alabama.  White.
Education: A.B. (Trinity College)
Occupation: editor, lawyer

David L. Peck was born in Alabama. His father, Elisha Wolsey Peck, moved there from New York state. When David was growing up, his father worked as a lawyer and ran one of the most successful law practices in the state. Wolsey evidently had no objection to slavery as he enslaved people during the antebellum. However, he was opposed to secession and remained uninvolved in political life during the Civil War. During Reconstruction, Wolsey became a leader within the state Republican Party. He was president of the 1867 constitutional convention and then served as chief justice of the state supreme court, holding the office from 1868 to 1873.

David left home around 1860 to attend college. He attended Burlington College for some time, but he gradated from Trinity College in 1862. It is unclear what he did during the war. However, he had returned to Alabama by late 1869. That December, he was elected as professor of ancient languages at the University of Alabama. He replaced John C. Loomis. David remained in the position until 1874.

By 1880, he had left the south. That year he was living in the town of Cortland, Illinois. He moved moved to  Connecticut by 1883. There he worked as a newspaper editor, as a stenographer for the Middlesex county courts, and as a justice of the peace. He died of pneumonia in 1888 while living in Clinton, Connecticut. 

Sources

1) Year: 1850; Census Place: District 1, Tuscaloosa, Alabama; Roll: 16; Page: 155a

2) Year: 1860; Census Place: Hartford District 3, Hartford, Connecticut; Roll: M653_78; Page: 332; Family History Library Film: 803078

3) Year: 1870; Census Place: Tuscaloosa, Tuscaloosa, Alabama; Roll: M593_43; Page: 381A

4) Year: 1880; Census Place: Cortland, DeKalb, Illinois; Roll: 202; Page: 29B; Enumeration District: 027

5) Letter

6) Letter2

7) Letter3

8) Letter4

9) "Brief Mention." Morning journal and courier. [New Haven, Conn.], March 29, 1888, p. 2.

10) "Personal." Morning journal and courier. [New Haven, Conn.], May 15, 1883, p. 2.

11) "Personal Jottings Regarding Connecticut Men" Morning journal and courier. [New Haven, Conn.], February 18, 1888, p. 2.

12) "The City: General News." Chicago daily tribune. [Chicago, Ill.], March 31, 1880, p. 8.

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