Elisha Peck

[1] Peck left Lenox at an early age and moved to Berlin, Connecticut, becoming involved in business with his uncle, Shubael Pattison, a tinsmith and trader.

[2] Shubael Pattison[Note 1] was the son of Edward Patterson, a tinsmith of Scots/Irish Presbyterian descent, credited with bringing the manufacture of tinware to America.

He also started to run a small shipping company and moved his business from Hartford to New York, where he formed a partnership in 1821 with Peck.

At this time, 80% of all cotton exported from America to Britain came into the country via Liverpool, from where it was transported to mills in Manchester and beyond via the canal system.

James was from a farming background and had moved to New York to start business in wholesale groceries, so his knowledge of the metal trades was limited.

In September of that year Peck left Liverpool with his family on the ship Sampson and returned to America leaving his assistant, Thomas Morris Banks, and the inexperienced Daniel James in charge of the business.

[8][9] Anson G. Phelps had purchased land at Haverstraw, Rockland County, New York, adjacent to the Minisceongo Creek and Hudson River, with the intention of starting an iron works.

Peck obtained the machinery for the rolling mill in Britain and employed Welsh engineer, Rhys Davies, to install and commission the equipment.

[Note 3][10] The mill opened in about 1833 and Peck named the works Sampsondale in reference to the ship that brought him and his family back to America in 1831.

In addition to the rolling mill, other production on the site included the manufacture of screws, wire and chemicals such as sulphuric acid.

[Note 4][14] The rolling mill closed some years later due to economic conditions, but was reopened in 1860 under the management of Elisha's son John Peck.

Another brother, Oliver, was involved with Lenox Iron Works and later produced window glass with his partner and brother-in-law William Augustus Phelps.