Herbert M. Peck. A representative member of the younger generation of the Oklahoma bar, Mr. Peck is assistant United States attorney for the Western District of Oklahoma with his official residence at Oklahoma City.

Mr. Peck claims the historic Old Dominion State as the place of his. nativity. His maternal ancestors were of the staunch Scotch-Irish element that settled in Rockbridge County, Virginia, in the pioneer days. His paternal ancestors were English, who likewise settled in the Valley of Virginia at an early period. Mr. Peck’s kinsmen were found enrolled in the Confederate ranks during the war between the states.

Herbert M. Peck was born on a farm in Rockbridge County, Virginia, on the 5th of November, 1879, and is a son of Hugh A. and Annie D. (McCormick) Peck, both likewise natives of Virginia. The maternal grandfather of Mr. Peck was a cousin of Leander McCormick, who attained to world-wide fame as an inventor and manufacturer of agricultural implements and machinery. The maternal grandmother of Mr. Peck was a member of the well known McClintock family of Virginia, and in this distaff line the subject of this review is likewise a descendant of Gen. Caesar Rodney, of Maryland, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, as well as a gallant soldier and officer of the Continental forces in the War of the Revolution. Mr. Peck is a member of that noteworthy patriotic body, the Society of the Sons of the American Revolution.

In his native state Herbert M. Peck gained his rudimentary education and as a youth he went to Wisconsin, where he continued his educational application in the public schools and where he was finally graduated in the high school in the City of Beaver Dam. Thereafter he devoted one year to teaching school in that state, and he then entered Lawrence University, in which he was graduated as a member of the class of 1904 and from which he received the degree of Bachelor of Arts. In the fall of 1904 Mr. Peck became an instructor in the Wentworth Military Academy, at Lexington, Missouri, where he remained two years and by virtue of his association received commission as captain in the Missouri National Guard.

In preparation for his chosen profession Mr. Peck returned to his native state and entered the law department of the historic old University of Virginia, at Charlottesville, and in this institution he was graduated in 1908, with the degree of Bachelor of Laws and with virtually simultaneous admission to the bar. In the same year Mr. Peck came to Oklahoma and established his residence in Oklahoma City, where he has since continued in the general practice of law.

Mr. Peck is identified with the American Bar Association, is a member of the executive council of the Oklahoma State Bar Association, in the affairs of which he is specially active, and is secretary of the Oklahoma County Bar Association. From 1911 to 1913, inclusive, he was assistant county attorney of Oklahoma County and from 1912 to 1914 he served as attorney to the Board of Education of Oklahoma City. In 1914 he received the democratic nomination for the office of county attorney of Oklahoma County, but was defeated in the election of November of that year by sixty-two votes out of a total of 11,000 votes cast, after a very hard fought campaign. He is well fortified in his political opinions and has been an active and effective exponent of the principles and policies of the democratic party. Mr. Peck is a member of the Men’s Dinner Club of his home city, and is affiliated with three college fraternities–the honorary fraternity, Delta Sigma Rho, the Phi Delta Theta and the legal fraternity of Phi Delta Phi, of that national organization which he was an officer for two years, 1911-12.

On the 26th of October, 1910, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Peck to Miss Frances McCoy Sawyer, daughter of Thomas O. and Rena (Page) Sawyer, of Lexington, Missouri. Mrs. Peck’s paternal grandfather. Judge Samuel L. Sawyer, not only served with marked distinction on the bench of the Circuit Court of Missouri, but also represented his district, that of Lexington, Missouri, as a member of the United States Congress. Mr. and Mrs. Peck have two daughters. Page and Prances, and the family home is an attractive residence at 612 West Thirty-second Street.