Rufus Wheeler Peckham (1809-1873)

Rufus Wheeler Peckham (December 20, 1809 – November 22, 1873) was a judge and congressman from New York, and the father of a U.S. Supreme Court justice.

Peckham was born in Rensselaerville, New York in Albany County on December 20, 1809 to Peleg and Desire Peckham. He graduated from Union College at Schenectady in 1827, where he was an early member of The Kappa Alpha Society, and after studying law was admitted to the bar in 1830. He served as the district attorney of Albany County from 1838 to 1841. Peckham was elected as a Democrat to the United States House of Representatives from New York's 14th District, serving in the Thirty-third Congress from March 4, 1853, until March 3, 1855. During his term, he was the chairman of the U.S. House Committee on Revolutionary Claims.

Peckham afterwards returned to legal practice in a partnership with Judge Lyman Tremain, until he was elected to serve as a justice of the New York Supreme Court for the Third Judicial District, from 1861 until 1869. He then sat as an associate judge on the New York Court of Appeals from July 4, 1870, until his death. It is believed that he was under consideration for appointment to the U.S. Supreme Court at the time of his death.

Peckham and his second wife, Mary Elizabeth Foote Peckham (1830-1873), were among 226 passengers and crew of the steamer Ville du Havre lost at sea, while the couple were en route to southern France to improve his failing health. The ship sank after colliding with the Scottish vessel Loch Earn in the north Atlantic Ocean on November 22, 1873; Peckham's last words were reported to be, "Wife, we have to die, let us die bravely." His remains were never recovered, and a cenotaph was erected at Albany Rural Cemetery in Menands, New York.

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