Person:Wheeler Peckham (1)

Wheeler Hazard Peckham was born in Albany, New York, the eldest son of Rufus Wheeler Peckham and Isabella Adoline Lacey. He was educated at The Albany Academy and Union College. He studied law at his father's partnership with Lyman Tremain. He established the firm of Miller & Peckham in New York City in 1867.

He was involved in the unsuccessful prosecution of New York City Mayor A. Oakey Hall in 1872, and also prosecuted former Tammany Hall leader, William Marcy "Boss" Tweed, in 1873. Peckham again represented the State of New York against Tweed in 1876, when he won a $6 million verdict in a civil fraud suit.

He was appointed by New York Governor Grover Cleveland as New York County District Attorney on November 30, 1883, but resigned after eight days, citing ill health. He then returned to private practice in the Wall Street offices of Miller, Peckham & Dixon, where he focused primarily on civil practice. He also served as the President of the New York City Bar Association from 1892 to 1894.

In 1894, President Grover Cleveland nominated Peckham to the U.S. Supreme Court. However, this nomination was opposed by the U.S. Senator from New York, David B. Hill, who was successful in securing the defeat of the nomination by a Senate vote of 32-41 on February 16, 1894. Hill's opposition to Peckham's nomination appears to have been in retaliation for Peckham's prior prosecution of Tweed.

In a September 28, 1905 article, The New York Times stated: "To write of Mr. Peckham's life work means the writing of a history of the reform movement in this city in the last half hundred years. Ever since the defeat and punishment of the Tweed ring he has been intimately and actively connected with every serious effort to give New York a clean and efficient government."

Wheeler Peckham married Annie Aertsen Keasbey in 1855.

The Wheeler H. Peckham Papers, 1838-1894, are housed in the Library of Congress, ID No. MSS35744.

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1 1.2} Grave marker.

   "Wheeler H. son of Rufus W. & Isabella A. Peckham, born January 1, 1833, died September 27, 1905"

2. ↑ Celebration Of The Semi-Centennial Anniversary of Albany Academy 1863
   page 122.

   Admitted to Albany Academy in 1844.

3. ↑ "Wheeler H. Peckham Dies in His Office", in The New York Times
   September 28, 1905.

   "Wheeler Hazard Peckham, brother of Associate Justice Rufus W. Peckham of the United States Supreme Court, and himself one of the best-known members of the New York bar, died yesterday afternoon in his office at 80 Broadway. Despite an indisposition of long duration, he went to his office to attend to some important business...About 3:30 o'clock Mr. Peckham died, having lost consciousness some time before..."

4. ↑ Trow's General Directory of the Boroughs of Manhattan and Bronx, City of New York (1903)
   1085.

   "Peckham, Wheeler H., lawyer 80 Bway, h 685 Madison av"

5. ↑ 1850 US Census, Albany County, New York - Albany City, Ward 10
   Page 158B, 8 July, 1850.

   Wheeler Peckham, 17 years, born New York, residing with his father, Rufus W. Peckham, Sr., and brothers Henry and Rufus, Jr., as well as his grandmother, Desire Peckham, and Aunt, Miranda Livingston.