6 Aug 1905

Louis A. Conklin

onklin letters.

Louis A. Conklin, born July 29, 1865 at Dowagiac, Cass county, Michigan, was into real estate and an investor in the Hardin County Banking Co. located in Forest. He was married to Louise E. Steinman before she died in 1893. On January 1, 1895 he married Eva M. Naus. They had a daughter, May C. Conklin who married a Wentz and had two children, Robert and Mary Lou Wentz. Though he may have already been a stockholder, in 1903 Louis became a stockholder in the Hardin County Banking Company by purchasing one share of the company’s stock for $50.

6 Aug 1905

Eva Conklin wrote to her grandma & grandpa Conkling (sic) on January 21, 1907. In the letter she tells of getting burned on her right knee and hand from boiling molasses. She also mentions that Ethel Fox was working for her father as a stenographer.

Huckleberry request (18 Aug 1905)

For the parents (18 Aug 1905)

Above right is a scan of the front and back of an envelope which Louis addressed to his father Alfred G. Conklin, in 1905. Right is the letter from that envelope. Alfred was a sickly Civil War veteran who lived in Michigan after the war, but moved into the Jackson Center school house in Jackson township, Hardin county, Ohio shortly after the war. Helping in that move was Anthony Kigar, brother of Rachael Conklin. Louis’s mother was Rachel A. (Kigar) Conklin. After the move to Ohio, the family again pulled up stakes and moved to Iowa accompanied by William Dubbs. The Iowa climate didn’t agree with Louis’s father so the family left Iowa and moved to Dowagica (Cushing Corners), Michigan where, in September, 1876, the family again pulled up stakes and returned to a farm in Jackson township, Hardin county, Ohio.

21 Jan 1907

Louis attended the Jackson Center school graduating June 4, 1886. Joe West, a long time Forest resident, in reminising about people of Forest, stated that L.A. became a teacher. He taught seventy students at the Jackson Center school in 1886 and 1887. He taught in the A. Grammar department of the Forest schools for five years where, due to contracting typhoid fever, he was compelled to give up teaching and move into outdoor work. That work consisted of baling & shipping hay and buying & selling farms. He did that work until the first world war when he enlisted.

Louis served in the army’s Construction division near Chillicothe, Ohio. In 1922 he received an appointment as postmaster for Forest where he served until 1934. He also served as Ohio’s President of the National League of District Postmasters until that retirement in 1934.

Louis was a member of Forest’s Odd Fellows Lodge #394 where he as eventually became a 50-year member. He also joined Hope Encampment No. 160 in February, 1892, and was a charter member of Virginia Rebekah Lodge #393.

Below the letters on the left is one of the real estate advertisements which L.A. ran in the Forest Review during his tenure in real estate. The date of the advertisement is unknown, but it shows the extent of the real estate properties he handled.

Louis A. Conklin died in Forest, 27 Aug 1941, and is buried in Hueston cemetery.

26 Aug 1909 letter & Advertisement