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Peck, Jesse Truesdell, D.D., LL.D.

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Peck, James

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a bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church, was born at Middlefield, Otsego County, N.Y., April 4, 1811. He was converted when sixteen years old, immediately united with the Church, and commenced a course of study preparatory to the ministry. After two years he was licensed as a local preacher, and in 1832 was admitted into the Oneida Conference, and sent to Dryden Circuit. The next year he was appointed to Newark, and successively to Skaneateles and Potsdam, when he became principal of Governeur High School, and remained four years. In 1841 he was elected principal of Troy Conference Academy, at Poultney, Vermont, a position which he retained till 1848. In 1849 he was chosen president of Dickinson College at Carlisle, Pennsylvania; in 1852 he became senior preacher of the Foundry Church in Washington, D.C. in 1854 secretary of the Tract Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church; in 1856 he was appointed pastor of Greene Street Church, N.Y.

He was next stationed at Powell Street, San Francisco; in 1860 was made presiding elder of San Francisco District. At the close of that year he became pastor in Sacramento City, and after two years was stationed at Santa Clara. From 1864 to 1865 he was pastor of Howard Street Church, San Francisco, and was for several years president of the board of trustees of the University of the Pacific, also president of the California State Bible Society, In 1866 he was appointed to Peekskill, N.Y.; in 1867 to Hudson Street, Albany, where he remained three years, and was then stationed at Centenary Church, Syracuse. In 1872 he was elected bishop, and: at once entered upon the duties of that office with great earnestness and intensity of interest, also striving to advance the interests of Christianity, wherever his influence was felt, He was a delegate to the Methodist OEcumenical Conference, held in London in 1881, where he distinguished himself by his able and dignified manner of presiding. He died at Syracuse, May 17, 1883. Bishop Peck's religious experience was especially rich and full, and his life most consistent and irreproachable. He was devoted to Methodism, but his broad, catholic spirit led him to regard Christians of all denominations as brothers in Christ. His sermons were clear and strong; as a pastor he was loving and faithful; and as a bishop, untiring in his energy till attacked by disease, which rendered further labor impossible. He was author of, The Central Idea of Christianity: — The True Woman: — What must I Do to be Saved? — and The History of the Great Republic. See Minutes of Annual Conferences, 1883, page 76; Simpson, Cyclop. of Methodism, s.v.