Portrait from the 1897 Souvenir of New Hampshire Legislators.
The 1897-98 session of the New Hampshire House of Representatives was populated by several oddly named legislators, and following on the heels of yesterday's write-up on Desire Laneville another member of that particular session is profiled, Derostus Pierce Emory, a resident of Jaffrey who served two legislative terms spaced 20 years apart. A lifelong Granite State resident, Derostus Pierce Emory was born in Rindge, New Hampshire on March 27, 1833, one of several children born to Derostus Wood (1807-1893) and Mary (Pierce) Emory (1805-1888). Inheriting his unusual first name from his father, Derostus Emery attended school in Rindge and married in November 1858 to Harriett Augusta Davis (1829-1899), to whom he was wed for four decades. The couple would have one son, George P. (1862-1950).
Following his marriage, Emory resided in Sharon, New Hampshire, where for three terms he served as a town selectman. In 1875 he was elected as Sharon's representative to the New Hampshire legislature, and during the 1876 session sat on the committee on the Agricultural College. One should note that Emory had some oddly named company during this session, his fellow representatives being Liba Conant Morrison (of Northfield) and Supply Wheeler Edwards (of Temple), both profiled on this site in year's past.
Sometime after his legislative service, Derostus Emory removed to Jaffrey, Cheshire County, New Hampshire, where he was engaged in the manufacture of boxes. In November 1896 he won a second term in the house of representatives, narrowly defeating Republican Will J. Mower by a vote of 166 to 161. The 1897-98 term saw Emory sit on the committee on Banks and at the conclusion of his term returned to Jaffrey, where he was affiliated with the Monadnock Savings Bank. A trustee of that bank beginning in the 1890s, Emory would later assume the presidency of that bank in 1906-11. In addition to that bank, Emory served as the director of the Monadnock National Bank beginning in 1891 and held its presidency from 1911 until a year prior to his death.
As a prominent man of means in Jaffrey, Emory donated $2,000 of his own money to establish what would become the "Emory fund", used to benefit the town. Following his death in 1921, Emory's son George would donate a further $3,000 dollars to continue the fund and in the centennial year of Dorastus Emory's birth construction was finished on a new fire station in Jaffrey that would be named in his honor in September 1932. Dorastus Pierce Emory died in Jaffrey on February 4, 1921, one month prior to his 88th birthday. Widowed in 1899, both Emory and his wife were interred at the Conant Cemetery in Jaffrey.
Portrait courtesy of the Missouri Historical Society (1865 Constitutional Convention album).
A distinguished 19th-century figure in Ironton, Missouri, Dorastus Peck was a longtime physician who, following his removal to that city in the late 1850s, had fleeting involvement in politics, being a delegate to the 1865 Missouri State Constitutional Convention. The youngest of thirteen children born to Peleg and Betsy (Sweet) Peck, Dorastus Peck was born on August 23, 1803, in Otsego County, New York.
Deciding upon a career in medicine early in life, Peck began his studies in Herkimer County and in 1825 married his first wife Rosilla (Park) Peck (1809-1846). This marriage would see the births of seven children, Freelove Eliza (born 1827), Lucy (born 1830), Carroll Romeyn (1831-1896), Eliva Geraldine (1834-1916), Caroline Lucinda (born 1837), Warren Elijah (1841-1868), and Franklin Thomas (1843-1916). Following Rosilla Peck's death in 1846 he remarried to Ellen F. Cooper, with whom he had a further four children, (Charles, Leonard, Manly, and George) between 1850 and 1862.
After being admitted to practice, Peck established himself in Licking County, Ohio, where he remained until 1841. This was followed by residence in Keosauqua, Iowa, where he practiced medicine until 1859 when he relocated to Ironton. He continued his practice in that city and in 1864 was elected as a delegate to the Missouri Constitutional Convention, which convened in St. Louis in January 1865. This convention's work would include abolishing slavery in the state by a 60 to 4 vote on January 11, and one month later officially adopted the 13th amendment.
Peck continued to reside in Ironton following his convention service, his last year being marred by a "disease of the lungs." He died aged 64 on June 18, 1868, in Ironton and was later buried at the Masonic Cemetery in that city.
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