Andrew Peck was born in New York City on 15 October 1836. He had no memory of his mother, who died when he was very young. His father left him at the Protestant Half Orphan Asylum when he was five years old, and afterwards died. Peck was then transferred to the Leake and Watts Orphan House. He apprenticed to a shopkeeper in Sharon Springs, New York at the age of fourteen, where he worked for almost two years. He moved out because of "cruel treatment" and sought to support himself independently.
