Lake Elsinore Cub Scout Makes Historical Find At Local Cemetery

Lake Elsinore resident Tucker Hansen, 8, is a graveyard sleuth. While helping his city prepare for the annual last weekend, he helped piece together a nearly 100-year-old legendary puzzle.

Memorial Day at the cemetery is a grand affair. Dignitaries from across the Elsinore Valley come together with residents to remember fallen soldiers. Grave markers for veterans who have been laid to rest at the cemetery are decorated with flags, crosses and flowers for the service.

On May 28, while participating as a Cub Scout from Pack 30 to help with preparations of the cemetery's Memorial Day service, Tucker spotted a large family headstone. No flag had been placed on the marker and it was not listed as a veteran's grave site.

Three Peck names are on the marker: Capt. L. B. Peck, George A. and Carver C.

It was the Captain’s name, however, that caught young Tucker’s inquisitive eye.

Diana Hansen, Tucker’s proud mom, tells the story best.

“We checked with cemetery staff and found that this monument represented actually two veterans in the Peck family!” she said.

The Captain was a Union soldier, and Carver, it seemed, was also a veteran. While there are no records to confirm, Carver and George are believed to be the Captain’s sons.

The headstone wasn't listed in the cemetery's computer database of interred veterans.

Diana Russell, district manager for the cemetery, "confirmed by old records that the Pecks were indeed veterans and their formidable monument should as such be marked with a flag,” Hansen continued, noting that Russell had to pull out an historical archive of 3"x5" cards to confirm the discovery. “We did mark the monument and my son placed flowers on Memorial Day as he proclaimed with great excitement and pride, 'I found the Captain!’”

A query about the Peck family was sent to Ruth Atkins, president of the Lake Elsinore Historical Society, and she provided more details.

“Peck Street in downtown Lake Elsinore was named after Captain L. B. Peck, and he served as the Justice of the Peace in 1884. The May 8, 1914 edition of the local paper announced his death and said he was a leading citizen who had built the fourth house in Elsinore,” Atkins found.

“According to the records on Elsinore Valley Cemetery, there is an Amanda A. Peck, who is buried next to Capt. Peck and she died on April 20, 1898,” Atkins continued.

“There used to be a book entitled Elsinore Vignettes that is a compilation of articles about the early pioneers," Atkins said. "In reviewing that brochure, I found the following notations relating to Captain Peck:  ‘ . . . Settling in Elsinore in 1884 meant real pioneering . . . and three or four small California built houses, one of these being occupied by the late Captain L. B. Peck and family . . . and a second one . . .’”

Atkins also discovered that Capt. L. B. Peck was a Union soldier. She was unable to locate any additional information about George, Carver or Amanda Peck.

Although the anecdotes are brief, the discovery was an important historical find: Two lost veterans were discovered resting in Lake Elsinore thanks to a curious 8-year-old.