Rear Admiral Robert Edwin PEARY

1856 - 1920  (63 years)

• Name	Robert Edwin PEARY
  Prefix	Rear Admiral
  Born	6 May 1856	Cresson, Cambira Co., Pennsylvania
  Gender	Male
  _UID	F23AB971D078B2488ED9B3A3E9B0B643E7E8
  Died	20 Feb 1920	Washington, District of Columbia
  Buried	Arlington National Cemetery, Arlington, Arlington Co., Virginia
  Person ID	I87639	Branch 005 Josiah Stafford (Stover) 1662 ME
  Last Modified	4 Nov 2020

  
  

  Family	Josephine DIEBITSCH,   b. 22 May 1863, Forestville, Prince George's Co., Maryland ,   d. 19 Dec 1955, Portland, Cumberland Co., Maine  (Age 92 years)
  Married	11 Aug 1888
  Children	1. Marie Ahnighito PEARY,   b. 12 Sep 1893, Greenland ,   d. 16 Apr 1978, Cumberland Co., Maine  (Age 84 years)   2. Robert Edwin PEARY, Jr.,   b. Abt 1904,   d. 1994, Florida  (Age ~ 90 years)
  Last Modified	13 Mar 2021
  Family ID	F29046	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

• Notes

  Explorer, United States Naval Officer. He led the first expeditions to reach the geographic North Pole of Earth, reaching it in his final expedition in 1909. Commissioned an officer in the United States Navy in the civil engineering corps in 1882, he soon hired Matthew A. Henson to be his valet; Henson would accompany him on all his expeditions. In 1908, after having already attempted two trips to the North Pole, Peary and his party sailed to Ellesmere Island (at the far north of Canada) on the “USS Roosevelt”. In early March, 1909, the expedition (Matthew A. Henson, Dr. John W. Goodsell, Donald B. MacMillion, Ross G. Marvin, George Borup and Captain Robert Bartlett) left their base camp at Cape Columbia and headed north in dog sleds (which Henson built). Peary, Henson and four Eskimos reached the North Pole on April 6, 1909 (the others turned back at various places along the way). It is now thought that Peary and Henson may have been 30-60 miles (50-100 km) short of reaching the pole (because of navigational mistakes that were made). Frederick A. Cook (who had accompanied Peary on an earlier expedition) later claimed to have reached the North Pole before Peary, in April 1908; this claim was later rejected completely as a cruel hoax. Robert Peary retired with the rank of Rear Admiral.