John Mason Peck - Alton, MO
Posted by: 
YoSam.
N 38° 54.235 W 090° 08.647
15S E 747651 N 4309992
On the campus of the Southern Illinois University Edwardsville Dental School located in Alton, IL
Waymark Code: WMX2X6
Location: Illinois, United States
Date Posted: 11/19/2017
Views: 1
County of memorial: Madison County
Location of plaque: College Ave. & Seminary Ave., near the Wadlow Statue, SIUE Dental School Campus, Alton
Plaque erected by: The Shurtleff Fund & The Illinoios State Historic Society
Date erected: 2000
Plaque Text:
JOHN MASON PECK
On this site in 1831, John Mason Peck (1789-1858), pioneer Baptist preacher, author, and educator, established the school which became Shurtleff College. In 1817, Peck had left his home in New England with a vision "To bring the lamp of learning and light of the Gospel" into the undeveloped west. He, his wife Sally, and three children endured an arduous four month trip in a small one-horse wagon, settling in Rock Springs, near O'Fallon, Illinois.
There in 1827, Peck founded Rock Springs Seminary, the first institution of it kind in the state of Illinois. In 1831, the Seminary was moved to the growing city of Alton, where in 1836, the name was changed to Shurtleff College, recognizing the gift of $10,000 from Dr. Benjamin Shurtleff of Boston.
John Mason Peck is well described as a missionary and a teacher, an author, and an editor, a geographer and a cartographer, and a promoter of churches, schools, and western settlement. For thirty years, he was undoubtedly one of the strongest advocates of education and righteousness in the entire Mississippi valley. He traveled hundreds of miles by horseback or wagon, often under most difficult circumstances, while his wife and children bore his long absences with fortitude.
Peck was one of the foremost ministerial opponents of slavery in Illinois and provide great support to Governor Edward Coles' successful anti-slavery effort in 1824. In 1851, he was honored with a doctor of divinity degree from Harvard University. He died on March 16, 1858, and is buried in Bellefontaine Cemetery in St. Louis.