Carl Sandburg wrote in his autobiography, Always the Young Strangers, “that Corp. Ed Peckenpaugh was up and down the company street and only the hard of hearing failed to get his baritone giving out 'Guess I'll Have to Telephone My Baby.' It was no surprise that later he had a choir and sang baritone anthems in a large church in Brooklyn, New York.”

When Company C, Sixth Regiment, Illinois Militia, returned to Galesburg from the Spanish-American War, in September, 1898, Ed Peckenpaugh was one of those who had to be helped off the train. Rather than marching with the rest of the men, he rode in a carriage from the depot to the armory for the welcoming ceremony. In all likelihood he had been afflicted with either malaria or yellow fever while serving in the Caribbean.

Perley Edward Peckenpaugh was born May 12, 1879, in Lincoln, Kansas. His parents were Solomon A. and Mary Peckenpaugh. She died at a young age. Later, Solomon A. returned to North Henderson and married Alice Haines on August 3, 1893. They had two children: Glenn and Violett.

Solomon A. Peckenpaugh was in the real estate, loan and insurance business, and for a time had an office in the Holmes Block on Main Street. After returning from the war, Ed joined his father in the business, then clerked for the W.A. Jordon Company, a wholesale grocery business. In the Galesburg City Directory of 1904-05, Ed is listed as a musician. He is not listed in later directories. He may have applied for a military pension in 1900. His military service probably damaged his health, which would have provided justification for his application.

In the 1920 Federal Census, Ed and a wife named Agnes are shown to be living in Manhattan, New York. In the 1930s he and his wife were operating a business in Amsterdam, New York. We can be fairly sure it had something to do with music.

Ed died March 29, 1960, in Cocoa, Brevard County, Florida. He was buried in Greenville Cemetery, Amsterdam, New York.

Edward Peckenpaugh's ancestry can be traced back to a time before the Revolutionary War. According to genealogical research, Catherine Beckenbach left Germany with her eleven children after her husband had been killed in an accident in 1751. They landed at Philadelphia. They were members of the Evangelical Reformed Church which was persecuted in Germany at that time.

The family and descendants settled in Virginia, then migrated to Kentucky, Indiana and Illinois, just as many settlers of that time. For some reason, the spelling of the surname was changed to Peckenpaugh during that period.