Biography of George Wilbur Peck
By Dave Peck
Comic Author & Governor of Wisconsin
George W. Peck (September 28, 1840 - April 16, 1916) was an American writer and politician who served as the 17th Governor of Wisconsin 1891-1895. He was a newspaper publisher and author of fourteen books including, "Peck's Bad Boy and His Pa" (his most popular). Peck was born in New York in 1840, but lived in Wisconsin from 1843 until the time of his death. He died in 1916 at age 75. After Peck's death, his writings became the basis for several films and theater productions.
In Wisconsin, he founded newspapers in Ripon and La Crosse. He was also connected with newspapers in Whitewater and Jefferson, Wisconsin. 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 a mischief-loving, mirth-provoking, bad boy. He invented a comic literary character called 'Peck's Bad Boy', and this creation made him a best-selling author and his name a household word.
At age 15 his formal education ended and Peck began an apprenticeship as a "printer's devil," i.e. a typesetter, at the White Water Register. The printer's trade in that pre-radio and pre-TV time gave him a love and respect for language. The skill that he acquired in the newspaper printing trade led to jobs at several other papers, including what is now the Wisconsin State Journal in Madison.
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