Henry Dwight Peck and Jennie Mae Peck

Henry Dwight Peck was born in New York in 1836. He purchased Montgomery Hall, consisting of about 150 acres, for $17,000.00 through Thomas C. Elder, special commissioner, and Briscoe B. Donaghe, surviving executor of the estate of William W. Donaghe, Sr. In November, 1873 Peck moved to Montgomery Hall from Connecticut with his wife, Mary Jeannette “Jennie Mae” Tucker Peck, his mother, and his two children, Jennie Mae Peck and John Sedgwick Peck. Three of his children, Horace Sill Peck, Louis Tucker Peck, and Frances Griswold Peck, were later born at Montgomery Hall. During Peck’s ownership, he installed a furnace, giving Montgomery Hall a central heating system and later added Montgomery Hall’s first bathroom.

Two of H.D. Peck’s daughters were married at Montgomery Hall and these weddings were described in detail in Staunton and Richmond newspapers. Dr. George Alsop Sprinkel, Jr., a dentist, and Frances Griswold Peck were married October 16, 1901. John Edwin Williams, of Little Rock, Arkansas and Jennie Mae Peck were married September 18, 1902. Peck’s son, Horace Sill Peck, wasn’t married at Montgomery Hall, but a large reception was held there in honor of his marriage to Gertrude Tuller in November, 1900.

In October, 1902, H.D. Peck sold Montgomery Hall to Emma J. Walter. Jennie Mae Peck died in 1926 and H. D. Peck died in 1927. They were buried in Thornrose Cemetery in Staunton.