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She's heard stories of the victory and how a central Illinois town got a Spanish name. It means "Fat Hill,"CQ she pointed out. The name is also fitting because of the town's elevated status as one of the high points between St. Louis and Danville, she said. She doesn't know the name of the volunteers, but she said a town father, George (Gordy) Peck, fought in the war. "You should look for a Peck," she said. "There's Pecks by the bushels around here." If that is not a famous line in Cerro Gordo, it ought to be. One prominent Peck (by marriage) is retired fourth-grade teacher Dorma Wood. She's related to many a leader. One part of her family traces its ancestry to Charlemagne, who was king of France before it was called France. She also claims Abraham Lincoln as a relative. "I'm a first cousin four times removed," she said. She knows the Peck history from her late husband's side. Gordy (sometimes spelled Gordie) Peck was a forbear of her husband and owned the stagecoach station. At 91, she is closer to Cerro Gordo history than most. She remembers that six men from the future town of Cerro Gordo, Ill., fought in the battle of Cerro Gordo, Mexico. "One man lost his left forearm," she said. One of the returning veterans was Gordy Peck. A local history book, "The Good Life In Piatt County," also lists Laban Chambers, John Post, A. Froman and Bazel Wells as Cerro Gordo veterans. Though their names are not inscribed on Santa Anna's shin, the battle was important enough for them to want to immortalize it as the town name. The battle was payback for the Alamo. Lee and Gen. Winfield Scott were triumphant over Santa Anna, who had lost some of his speed and quickness along with his leg in the French Pastry War. (That brief and forgotten scuffle was started when Mexican soldiers plundered a French pastry chef's restaurant. True story. And the battle is apparently still warmly remembered in Texas, the site of the fictional town in "King of The Hill." A Fox spokesman said the writer of the episode had learned of Santa Anna's sorrows as a boy, and it stuck with him. Santa Anna, and later the Mexican government, tried repeatedly to get the leg back.