The Telegraph-courier. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1888-1946, 1891-01-08

Prof. ]. B. Parkinson, S. S. Hanks, and
L. M Fay, took seats in the carriages
and drove off to the railway station.
Around the bands and gentlemen with
bright ribbons tied in their buttonholes
gathered a crowd of about thousand
people, who waited till the special train
from Milwaukee bearing the Governor
elect and his chosen friends arrived.
Mayor Bashford and the Reception
Committee succeeded in leading Gov.
Hoard into the parlor car in the footsteps
of COL Villas, and for q few moments
they were busily engaged in shaking
hands with the distinguished friends OF
the coming man. They were escorted
from the car, placed in the carriages,
and then with the soldiers and the bands
in front and the crowd behind they drove
to the Capitol on the hill.
The incoming officials, eight in num-
ber ranged themselves in chairs direct
| ly behind the reporters. Each one was
accompanied by the outgoing Republican
and Chief Justice Cole took the Speak
er's chair Mayor Bashford stood up
behind him and said:
Ladies and gentlemen. the time has
come for swearing in the State officers
elected to take charge of the State affairs
I for two years. The first is Goyernor-elect
| George W. Peck.
Gov. Hoard rose from his chair, offered
his arm to Mr.. Peck and escorted him to
point in front of the Chief Justice.
Holding up his right hand, Mr.. Peck
swore to support the Constitution of the
United States and of the State of Wiscon-
sin. and to fill the office of Governor to
the best of his ability. The others fol-
| lowed in their turn--Carl Jonas of RAJ
cine, Lieutenant Governor; Thomas j.
Cunningham of Chippewa Falls, Secre-
| tary of State; John Hummer of Eau
Claire, State Treasurer; j. L. O'Connor
of Madison, Attorney General; O. E.
Wells of Appleton, Commissioner of
Railroads and Insurance.
From policeman to Governor, such in
brief is the political career of George w.
Peck, Governor of Wisconsin, Twenty
years ago Peck was Chief of Police of
La Crosse, Wis, which at that time was
small town, and the duty OF Chief
Peck was to patrol Main street and pre-
serve order History contains no record
of how Chief Peck came to leave such a
lucrative position, but it does say that
Peck was also a member Of the La
Crosse Fire Department. The next step
in his political career was his election as
Chief Clerk of the Wisconsin Assembly
in 1874, a position he filled for one term.
For sixteen years following Peck's polit-
ical life is blank-that is, he held no
office nor did he take any active interest
in politics. Last spring, after several
prominent Democrats of Milwaukee had
declined to be the party candidate for
Mayor, Peck was urged by some of his
friends for the nomination. That he
had secured the vote at once made him
Il III Io& IOxy
He was nominated and elected.
But Peck has another profession be-
sides politics, that of journalism, and to
the latter entirely he owes his comforta-
Bile condition in life. He was born of
poor parents at Henderson, Jefferson
County, n Y, in 1910. When but 3
years of age he went to Wisconsin with
his parents, who settled at Cold Spring.
in Jefferson County. While a boy George
learned his trade as printer in the office
of the Whitewater Register. In 1863 he
enlisted in the Fourth Wisconsin Cav
airy, the same regiment in which Gov
Hoard went out, and was commissioned
Second Lieutenant in 1864 After leaving
the army in 1866 he established weekly
paper called the Representative at Ripon.
Two years later he accepted an editorial
position on Brick Pomeroy's New York
Democrat. In 1870 he returned to La
Crosse, and at the same time that he was
Chief of Police he edited weekly news
paper Peck's S1ul was established in
La Crosse in 1874. After its removal to
Milwaukee in 1873 the paper established
national reputation through its Dad
Boy" series, and made for its publisher
a snug fortune, which is mostly invested
in Milwaukee real estate.