My Genealogy Hound

DR. HENRY CONKLING was born in Morristown, N. J., April 27, 1814; his father Stephen Conkling, moved to New York City in 1816, where the Doctor lived until he was 16 years old, when he returned to his native place and finished his school days in the Morristown Academy his father and family emigrated to Ohio in 1801, and located in Mt. Vernon, at which place he joined them in 1832. When 23 years old, he was united by marriage to Eliza Wiley, daughter of Hugh Wiley, who lived near Mt. Vernon; in the spring of 1838, he came to Le Roy, in this county, making the journey in eighteen days, on horseback; his brother Edgar Conkling, was living there and had laid off two additions to the town; he returned to Ohio in a few weeks, and moved back to Le Roy the next fall, with his family; they came in a covered wagon, camping out on the way by the roadside; while living in Le Roy, he taught school and studied medicine with Dr. David Edwards; in the year 1843, he commenced the practice of medicine near Mount Hope, in this county; in the year 1844, he moved to Washington, Tazewell Co., this State; his health failing, he returned to Ohio in 1845, and practiced medicine five years, during which time he graduated and received his diploma from the Starling Medical College of Columbus, Ohio. His wife died in the spring of 1850; in June of that year, he returned to McLean Co., and located at Hudson, where his brother-in-law James T. Gildersleeve, Esq., was living, where he practiced medicine fourteen years, during which time he had an extensive practice; in 1864, he moved to Bloomington; during this year he was sent South as an additional Surgeon in the army, and was assigned to the 7th I. V. C.; when Corinth was evacuated by Gen. Beauregard, the Doctor, with some of the Union army, pressed hard after them; many of the Union soldiers were wounded in a skirmish; these the Doctor took charge of, placing them in a cabin having one room, the best that could be done for them at that time; as soon as they were able to be moved, the Doctor sent them to the general hospital. After the war closed, he was appointed one of the Examining Pension Surgeons for disabled and wounded soldiers, which position he held about three years. He was married to his second wife January, 1851; she was the widow of L. Sampson, who died with cholera in Bloomington in 1849; she died in the fall of 1863, He was married to his third wife in May, 1866; she was the widow of C. E. Dodge, a Baptist minister, also the daughter of Peter Withers, who emigrated to this county from Kentucky in 1832. In June, 1866, the first meeting was held in Urbana, Ill., for the purpose of devising ways and means for the construction of a railroad from Danville, Ill., through Bloomington, to the Illinois River; he was the only delegate from Bloomington to the meeting; the meeting adjourned to meet in Le Roy in August, at which time an organization was effected, and the Doctor was appointed Secretary and one of the Directors of the road, known then as the Danville, Urbana, Bloomington & Pekin Railroad; he took a very active part in this enterprise, devoting all his time to its accomplishment; May 1, 1870, the road was finished, the Doctor putting in the last bolt that tied the road between Indianapolis and Pekin; as an appreciation of his efforts and success, the citizens of Bloomington presented to him, by the hands of Gen. I. Bloomfield, in Schroeder’s Opera House, a valuable gold watch, engraved thereon a locomotive with the initials I. B. & W. R. R. The Doctor is the proprietor of the Turkish and Electro-Thermal Institute, located in Bloomington, Ill., for the treatment of disease, which is largely patronized, not only by invalids but those who take the baths as a luxury.