pioneer settler, b. Rutland County, Vt. She moved to Blue Mounds, Wisconsin Territory, in 1836, and in Apr., 1837, became the first white woman settler in Madison. She was the mother of Wisconsiana Peck, the first white child born in Madison. In 1837 the Pecks built an inn in Madison to lodge the workmen building the new capitol, and in 1840 the family moved to Baraboo. There, her husband having abandoned her and left for the California gold fields, Mrs. Peck farmed and supported her family for many years. She later wrote several vivid accounts of her frontier life. Proc. State Hist. Soc. Wis., 1900 (1901); Colls. State Hist. Soc. Wis., 6 (1872); F. C. Dexheimer, comp., Sketches of Wis. Pioneer Women [Ft. Atkinson, 1925]; Milwaukee Sentinel, Oct. 22, 1899; WPA MS.

The Wisconsin Historical Society has manuscripts related to this topic. See the catalog description of the Roseline Williard Peck Miscellany for details.

View Peck's reminiscence at Wisconsin Historical Collections.

View newspaper clippings at Wisconsin Local History and Biography Articles.

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[Source: Dictionary of Wisconsin biography]