That's essentially what happened in 1890, when George W. Peck was elected.

After the Civil War, Peck was a Milwaukee journalist famous for short sketches about an energetic and precociously naughty "Bad Boy" who plagued his father with practical jokes. These tales of a Victorian Dennis the Menace found a national audience when Peck collected them into books during the 1880s.

By 1890, when Peck was nominated for governor, his various books of humor had passed through nearly 100 printings (they eventually sold more than a million copies).

At the Wisconsin Democratic convention he was introduced as "a humorous and cheerful writer, one who tried to throw sunshine and happiness around the path of hardship and toil. ... Indeed, his political creed was simply, "there is nothing more pleasant in the world than to have people happy."

That summer, one of his most recent books was a Civil War memoir, "How Private George W. Peck Put Down the Rebellion." He described it as "reminiscences of the ridiculous part taken in the struggle, by a raw recruit, who was too scared to fight and too frightened to run."

Much to everyone's surprise, the well-known author won the election and became the only Democrat to occupy the executive office between 1876 and 1933.

His two terms in office were uneventful, and Peck was remembered as "a man of high integrity who was more adept as a speaker, writer, and companion than as a Governor."

-- Wisconsin Historical Society
www.wisconsinhistory.org

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