Woman of the Century/Margaret Bloodgood Peeke

PEEKE, Mrs. Margaret Bloodgood, author, born near Saratoga Springs, N. Y., 8th April, 1838. Most of her youthful days were spent in the city of New York. At her father's death she was but twelve years of age. Her mother's brother, Chancellor Erastus C. Benedict, of New York, charged himself with her education and became in many ways her counselor and guide. MARGARET BLOODGOOD PEEKE. At the age of sixteen years she was already a contributor to magazines and periodicals. At the age of twenty-two years she became the wife of Rev. George H. Peeke, now of Sandusky, Ohio. For fifteen years she attended only to family and parish duties, and the cherished thought of a literary life was abandoned. At length leisure came in an unexpected way. Long continued ill health gave truce to outer cares without damping the ardor of the spirit. Her pen was resumed, and songs and stories found their way to various periodicals. Mrs. Peeke was for a time associate editor of the "Alliance," of Chicago. Her letters drew attention to her favorite summer-resort in the Cumberland mountains, and a little pamphlet entitled "Pomona" was her reply to many requests for information. A serial story, "The Madonna of the Mountains," and other serial sketches, breathe the pure air and primitive human sympathies of that region. Her college novel, called "Antrobus," written while her son was in college in New England, was purchased by the Detroit "Free Press" and published as a serial in 1892, preparatory to a more permanent book form. Her later time has been devoted to a work connected with the pygmies of America and the origin of the race. That was issued under the title "Horn of Flame" (Philadelphia, 1892). She is an enthusiastic lover of the Bible and teaches it with ease and success that fill her classes to overflowing.