John Mason Peck, an American clergyman, born in Litchfield, Conn., Oct. 31,1789, died at Rockspring, 111., March 15,1858. He received a limited education, and in 1811 removed to Greene co., N. Y. He was licensed to preach in 1812, was ordained at Catskill in 1813, and from 1814 to 1816 was pastor of the Baptist church in Amenia, Dutchess co. In May, 1817, he was set apart as a missionary of the Baptist general convention to the west, went to St. Louis, and for the next nine years was an itinerant missionary in Missouri and Illinois. In 1826 he secured subscriptions in New England and New York to found a literary and theological seminary at Rockspring, giving the lands for it, and he was principal of it in 1830-'31. In April, 1829, he started "The Pioneer," the first Baptist journal published in the west, which he maintained for 10 or 12 years. In 1831, in connection with the Rev. Dr. Going, he originated the American Baptist home mission society. In 1832 he published " The Emigrant's Guide," which led to extensive emigration to Illinois and other northwestern states, and began the publication of a monthly Sunday school paper.

In 1834 he published a " Gazetteer of Illinois." In 1835 Shurtleff college was founded by his exertions at Upper Alton, 111., and the Rockspring seminary transferred to the new institution. Mr. Peck during the year travelled 6,000 miles, and raised $20,000 for the endowment of the college. His next effort was for the establishment of a theological seminary at Covington, Ky. In 1843-5 he resided in Philadelphia as corresponding secretary and general agent of the American Baptist publication society, and for the next 13 years was a pastor in Missouri, Illinois, and Kentucky. During this period he wrote a life of Daniel Boone for Sparks's "American Biography," and edited the "Annals of the West." He left a journal, which with his correspondence and a memoir was edited by Rufus Babcock under the title " Forty Years of Pioneer Life " (Philadelphia, 1864).