Robert Morris Peck

Born in Washington, Mason County, Kentucky, on October 30, 1839, Robert Morris Peck enlisted in the First Cavalry as a teenager in November 1856. Sources connected with The Wolf Hunters say he later served at Fort Leavenworth, took part in Cheyenne campaigns, and after his discharge in 1861 worked as a wagon-master with the army on the frontier.

Peck is remembered for frontier narratives based on his own experiences in the Southwest and on the plains. A National Park Service page notes that he left letters, diary entries, and journals full of observations about the land and its people, and that he published memoirs of his life in the Southwest in 1901.

His best-known book today is The Wolf Hunters: A Story of the Buffalo Plains, published in 1914 after his death and edited by George Bird Grinnell. The book presents a firsthand-feeling account of adventures in Kansas during the winter of 1861–1862, which helps explain why his work still appeals to readers who enjoy historical frontier stories. Peck died on March 25, 1909.