Peck family legacy lives on in Geneva: Farmstead from 1840s preserved

GENEVA – Descendants of Eli and Jerusha Peck, much of whose 1840s farmstead became the Geneva Park District's Peck Farm Park, visited the home where they grew up June 28.

The visit to the area also included the dedication of a peony garden to their late mother, Erdene Peck.

John, 62, and Anne Peck, 69, toured the 1869 farmhouse – now converted into a nature education center and history gallery – pointing out where the kitchen and dining rooms used to be, and where they used to watch television.

John Peck traveled from Montana, and Anne Peck came from California for the dedication of Erdene’s Garden, a picnic area set apart with a pergola and surrounded by peonies.

“They were peonies that mom and dad planted around the house and in the yard,” Anne Peck said. “Isn’t that fun?”

Anne Peck paused briefly outside a room in the farmhouse where children were learning about nature.

“I love that,” she said, smiling broadly.

John and Anne Peck's father, George Peck, was a descendant of Eli and Jerusha Peck, who settled as farmers on the land in the 1840s, according to the history of the site.

Eli Peck became nationally known for the Merino sheep he raised, as they were prized for their wool, according to the history.

As farm kids, the Peck siblings had farm chores to do, John Peck said, such as bale hay, till the soil, run the tractor, feed the cattle and tend crops. A third sibling, George Peck Jr., did not attend the garden dedication.

When George and Erdene Peck were going to move to Montana, at least nine builders wanted to buy their land to build houses, said former park district Director Stephen Persinger.

Instead, the Pecks sold the park district some 400 acres on both sides of Kaneville Road to be preserved as open space and sold other land to Geneva School District 304 for its middle schools, Persinger said.

Persinger was park district director from 1979 to 2000 when much of the planning and design of Peck Farm Park occurred.

"Both George and his wife wanted the land preserved for open space," Persinger said. “It was a great family to work with. I really enjoyed it. We had sections of property that we bought from George and Erdene Peck, and they donated a few acres, too.”

George Peck died in 2008 at age 90, and Erdene Peck died last year at 95, both living in Montana at the time. They turned over the house to the park district in 1995, John Peck said.

The fact that their parents made all this possible is an important legacy for their family, the Pecks said.

“It means there is a legacy,” John Peck said. “It was our father’s desire not to see this all made into suburbia.”

Standing on the front porch that faces Kaneville Road, he gestured to the housetops visible in the distance.

“And suburbia surrounds it,” John Peck said.