CHAPTER VIII 



Robert E. Peary, the Indomitable Polar Explorer 



TO briefly summarize for the reader the earlier events of Com- 

 mander Peary's life, before taking up the story of the great 

 achievements which have brought him into the limelight of 

 public approbation, we give the following concise account of his 

 early history and of his services in the employment of the govern- 

 ment before he began his famous explorations : 



Robert Edwin Peary is a Pennsylvanian by birth, having been 

 born at Chester Springs, near Altoona, in the western section of 

 that State, on May 6, 1856. Descended from a family of hardy 

 Maine lumbermen, his immediate ancestors were Charles Peary and 

 Mary (Willey) Peary. His father had migrated to Pennsylvania 

 and became engaged in the lumber business there, but died in 1858, 

 when his son was two years old. We next hear of the family in 

 Portland, Maine, to which they had removed and where the boy's 

 early life was spent and his primary education obtained. Having 

 prepared for a higher education, he entered Bowdoin College, and 

 graduated there with second honors in 1877. Throughout his college 

 career the study that most fully interested his attention was the 

 subject of Arctic exploration, which from early life had held a 

 peculiar fascination for him, and was the subject of his most earnest 

 reading. 



On leaving college he adopted the profession of civil engineer, 

 for which he had fitted himself in his college career, his first employ- 

 ment being as a land surveyor at Fryeburg, Maine. In 1879 he 

 became engaged upon the Coast and Geodetic Survey at Washing- 

 ton, remaining in this field of duty until 1881. 



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