Coxswain, U.S. Navy.
Died of tuberculosis at U.S. Naval Hospital in Newport, Rhode Island, March 31, 1918. Age 25.
Town: Batavia
Burial: Elmwood Cemetery, Plot 12 Lot 288, Batavia, Genesee County, New York
Willis Curtis Peck was born on September 24, 1892, in Brockport (Monroe County), New York, but lived most of his life in Batavia (Genesee County). The April 1, 1918 Batavia Daily News gives Peck’s birth date as September 24, 1893; all other sources, however, including his U.S. Navy enlistment papers, confirm 1892 as the correct birth year.
Willis Peck was the oldest of three children of tinsmith Edwin B Peck and Mary nee Kuelker Peck. The 1900 US Census shows Willis at age 7 and his two sisters, Edwina and Helena, living with their paternal grandparents in Brockport. By 1901, however, Willis Peck appears in a December 20 Batavia Daily News listing of second and third graders at St. Joseph’s School in Batavia. The 1905 NY State Census shows Willis and his parents and sisters living at 21 Chestnut Street in Batavia. When Willis’s mother died in 1907, her obituary in the June 21 Batavia Daily News stated that the Pecks had “lived in Batavia six years.” The 1910 US Census also shows Willis and his family living at 21 Chestnut Street, with his father married for two years to his second wife, Harriet nee Miller Peck. 1917’s Farm Journal Illustrated Directory of Genesee County shows Edwin and Harriet, minus their children, still at the same address.
Willis attended Batavia High School and, when he enlisted in the U.S. Navy in Allentown, Pennsylvania, on December 2, 1915, at age 23, he still gave 21 Chestnut Street in Batavia as his home address. Various brief reports of him visiting in Batavia and returning to his base at Newport, Rhode Island, appear in Batavia newspapers during 1916 and 1917. According to several transfer papers in his Official Military Personnel File, Peck served aboard the USS Rhode Island, a Virginia-class battleship in the Atlantic Fleet, during this period. His NYSS indicates that he served at the Newport Naval Training Station from May 1917 to February 1918.
Several insurance-related documents in his Military Personnel File suggest that Willis Peck was married at the time of his death, while others raise doubts. A beneficiary form in the file dated July 12, 1917, and signed by Willis Peck names Mollie Fitzgerald Peck of Somerville, Massachusetts, as his wife and primary beneficiary.
According to the April 1, 1918 Batavia Daily News article announcing his death, Coxswain Peck perished of “a long illness with a complication of diseases.” Documents in his Official Military Personnel File reflect this, showing transfers to and from the Naval Hospital at Newport, Rhode Island, as early as spring 1917. His service record and Officers and Enlisted Men of the United States Naval Service Who Died During the World War give tuberculosis as the cause of death.
Coxswain Willis C Peck was interred with military honors at Batavia’s Elmwood Cemetery on April 4, 1918. He was the first Batavia serviceman to be brought home for burial since war had been declared nearly a year earlier. All Batavia businesses were closed during his funeral.
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April 1, 1918 Batavia Daily News p6 c5
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April 2, 1918 Batavia Daily News p1 c5
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April 3, 1918 Batavia Daily News p1 c7
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Source: New York Service Summary from Abstracts of World War I Military Service, 1917-1919, NY State Archives, Albany, New York
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Source: Official Military Personnel File (OMPF), U.S. Navy, Archival, Record Group 024, National Archives – St. Louis, Missouri.
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Source: Official Military Personnel File (OMPF), U.S. Navy, Archival, Record Group 024, National Archives – St. Louis, Missouri.
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Source: Official Military Personnel File (OMPF), U.S. Navy, Archival, Record Group 024, National Archives – St. Louis, Missouri.
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Source: Official Military Personnel File (OMPF), U.S. Navy, Archival, Record Group 024, National Archives – St. Louis, Missouri.
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Willis C Peck headstone, Elmwood Cemetery, Plot 12 Lot 288, Batavia, Genesee County, New York
GPS Coordinates: Lat 42° 59’ 25.589” N, Long 78° 10’ 11.969” W (DD: 42.990441, -78.169991)
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Willis C Peck Sources:
– All County Lists; also BHR
– Dec 20, 1901 BD p4 c4
– Jun 21, 1907 BD p1 c6
– Apr 13, 1916 BD p5 c3
– Sep 22, 1917 BD p6 c4
– Apr 1, 1918 BD p6 c5*
– Apr 2, 1918 BD p1 c5
– Apr 3, 1918 BD p1 c7
– Apr 6, 1918 BT p2 c2
– Apr 27, 1918 BD p7 c2
– “United States Census, 1900.” Online index and images, HeritageQuest.com. Entries for Erastus R Peck (head) and Willis C Peck (grandson, age 7), citing Census Records, Sweden Township, Village of Brockport, Monroe, New York; sheet number 2B, line numbers 74 and 77, microfilm series T623, Roll 1077, page 225.
– “New York State Census, 1905.” Online index and images, FamilySearch.org. Entry for Willis C Peck age 12, citing Census Records, Batavia, E.D. 04, Genesee, New York; page number 2, line 28.
– “United States Census, 1910.” Online index and images, HeritageQuest.com. Entries for Edwin B Peck (head) and Willis Peck (son, age 18), citing Census Records, Batavia, Genesee, New York; sheet number 1, line numbers 13 and 15, microfilm series T624, Roll 951, page 150.
– “New York, County Marriages, 1908-1935. ” Online index and images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/FF5T-3ZH). Edwin B Peck and Harriet Miller, Certificate and Record of Marriage, 16 March 1908, Registered No. 24, Batavia, Genesee County; New York State Department of Health, Vital Records Sections, Albany, New York.
– Farm Journal Illustrated Directory of Genesee County (1917), p 83
– NYSS
– Roll of Honor (NY State), p 65
– “Peck, Willis Curtis,” Official Military Personnel File (OMPF), U.S. Navy, Archival (Record Group 024); National Archives – St. Louis, Missouri.
– “Rhode Island,” “Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships,” Dept. of the Navy, Naval Historical Center, online (http://www.history.navy.mil/danfs/r5/rhode_island-ii.htm)
– “Casualties of the United States Navy and Coast Guard by Date and Ship/Base – March 1918,” online (http://www.naval-history.net/WW1NavyUS-CasualtiesChrono1918-03Mar.htm).
– Officers and Enlisted Men of the United States Naval Service Who Died During the World War, p 583
– Email correspondence 15 November 2012 with Kathy Facer, reference desk, Richmond Memorial Library, Batavia, New York re: Willis C Peck in “Elmwood Cemetery Records” compiled by DAR in 1938.
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