Josephine Peck: Millionaire wife, club woman and grieving mother
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A beautifully done quilt, hanging on the wall in the Thomas Taber Museum on West Fourth Street, shows a snowy winter scene at 1075 West Fourth Street, on the corner of Susquehanna Street, as it may have looked prior to 1876. In the quilt, a mother and two girls are walking up the sidewalk toward the front porch of a house. The quilt was made by Wendy Etzel, a master quilter who for many years taught quilt classes in the city. I thought perhaps the happy scene depicted a mother and her two daughters arriving home after doing some Christmas shopping in the local markets or after making a social call on friends.
Upon seeing the newly completed quilt at Wendy's studio, I remember marveling at the attention to detail and wondering where Wendy's inspiration came from. She then explained that the house was still standing, the mother was Josephine Peck, and the girls were Josephine's two daughters, Josephine "Josie" Peck and Catherine "Katie" Peck. Josie and Katie, forever immortalized in the cozy winter scene, died of diphtheria on March 16, 1876.
Josephine McCormick Peck was born on February 2, 1831, in Mill Hall, to Saul and Catherine McCormick. Saul McCormick was one of the most prominent men in business and social circles in Lock Haven. Catherine McCormick was the former Catherine Hood.
Married lumberman Darius Peck of Lock Haven
Josephine married Darius Peck, a lumberman, on August 30, 1865. Darius was one of the pioneer lumbermen of Lock Haven. Upon coming to Williamsport, he formed a partnership with Colonel S. D. Barrows; the firm was called Peck & Barrows. Darius and Josephine lived a comfortable life, employing both a cook and several house servants. Josephine quickly became a leader in the social life of the city and an active member of the Third Presbyterian Church, housed in the building located at 807 West Fourth Street that is now Covenant-Central Presbyterian Church. At age 37, Josephine found herself the wife of a successful businessman and the mother of two young daughters: Katie, born on February 24, 1867, and Josie, born on October 26, 1868.
In 1876, there was an outbreak of diphtheria in the city. Diphtheria had gained its official name from a French physician, Pierre Bretonneau (1778-1862), who called the disease diphterite after the Greek word for "leather" or "hide," which describes the coating that appears on the throats of persons infected with the disease. The first breakthrough in finding an antitoxin occurred in 1890, but it was not until the 1920s that real progress was made when Dr. William H. Park launched a massive program in New York City to immunize school children and study the effects of the vaccine. In fewer than 75 years, diphtheria, which was once the leading cause of premature death of children, was virtually eliminated in the United States. Unfortunately for the Peck family, it came too late to save their daughters.
Daughters both died from diphtheria
Josie and Katie were eight and nine years old, respectively, when they succumbed to the disease. The remains of the little ones were described in a newspaper article as being surrounded by beautiful flowers as they lay in the casket with hands clasped and faces turned toward each other as in the deep, sweet slumber of childhood, instead of the long sleep of death. Before she passed, Josie called for her papa, and when he asked what she wanted, she replied "nothing"--she only wanted to know he was there. Katie passed 25 minutes later, after kissing her mother's face three times and remarking that she did not want to go to heaven alone. Josie and Katie are buried in the Wildwood Cemetery.
Community leader
In activities typical of the wife of a successful businessman in the nineteenth century, Josephine would spend much of her time reading, writing and attending concerts and meetings of social clubs, as well as engaging in charitable pursuits. One club, known as The Browning Club, had as its object literary pursuit. The club had been formed by a number of ladies of Williamsport meeting together at Josephine's home. The meetings proved so successful and so many persons applied for admission that it was deemed advisable to extend the scope of the club.
On Wednesday, October 27, 1897, in the Red Room of the Park Hotel on West Fourth Street, about forty women met, formed a constitution and drew up by-laws. The new club was known as the Clio Club, and Mrs. Josephine Peck was elected Second Vice President. The mission of the club was "The pursuit of study as a means of intellectual culture and general improvement." The club was restricted to females, and new members were admitted by invitation only.
An article in the Daily Gazette and Bulletin on November 18, 1897, describes the members as "prominent ladies" of this city. As membership grew, arrangements were made with the Park Hotel to provide meeting space. Individual members were assigned subjects to research and write about. Their reports would then be read to the entire club.
Clio Club Art branches out
The club soon began to branch out, taking up the important questions of the day as well as creating an art and travel department. Josephine was selected as curator of this department, as she had traveled extensively and had organized "picture evenings" at her home. Josephine had photographs of the many places she had visited and would host programs in her home to bring the outside world to many people in Williamsport.
The girl at work
According to an article in The Williamsport Sun on August 31, 1912, the ladies of the Clio Club wished to gain not only book knowledge but also all-around development; a study of the problems of the day would mean a broadening in every sense of the world. One of the studies the group undertook was titled "The Girl at Work." The wages of the working girl would be considered, as well as her social conditions, the places where she found amusement and her general cost of living, so that the club women would have an idea of what being a working girl meant and, when the time came, would be able to act intelligently. This study may have been prompted by the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire in Manhattan on March 25, 1911. The fire caused the deaths of 123 women and girls and 23 men, who died from fire, smoke inhalation or falling or jumping to their deaths after fire broke out. The doors to the stairwells and exits were locked--a common practice at the time to prevent workers from taking authorized breaks and to reduce theft.
Josephine held the position of president of the Clio Club during its second year of existence. After retiring from the presidency, Josephine remained curator of the art and travel department of the club and enjoyed traveling extensively before ill health required that she move to Philadelphia to live at the home of her niece.
Josephine passed away in 1908 at age 77 and is interred in the Peck family plot in Wildwood Cemetery next to her daughters and her husband, Darius, who passed away in 1892.
To find out more about the Clio Club and other stories of women who made a difference in our community, I invite you to explore the Lycoming County Women's History Project website at lcwhp.lycoming.edu. To view the quilt that inspired this story, stop into the Taber Museum at 858 West Fourth Street, Williamsport, and be sure to visit the Genealogical Society Library while you are there.
Jo Ann Tobias is a regular volunteer at the Lycoming County Genealogical Society Library. She loves history and discovering more about Lycoming County and the people who made it what it is today.