Person:Bernard Conley (1)

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Montrose Conley was a radiologist and practiced out of his home in Wilmette, Illinois. His wife, Minnie, was the first woman psychiatrist in Illinois. Pat Chatham remembers spending two weeks each summer at their home. She relates several stories of her great uncle Montrose. Apparently when Pat's father and uncle Carroll were boys, Montrose sent them a letter to pick up a couple pounds of butter at the railroad station. When they got there, the "butter" turned out to be a young goat! It later became the family pet. Their mother Mary would put the goat in the basement whenever her "elite friends" came for tea. One afternoon, the goat got loose, came upstairs, and hopped into the lap of on of the "society" friends, and promptly started eating the flowers from the lady's hat. Pat wasn't certain who was more mortified, the lady or Pat's grandmother. Pat remembers the Christmas after her grandfather died. Montrose had sent them a paper mache Santa Claus with a pair of silk hose in his pack. She didn't find a hidden $100 bill, also in the sack, until the next year. Pat, her grandmother Mary, "Beanie," Montrose, Minnie, and Montrose's son, John, all piled into their Buick and drove to Preston County when Pat was five. She recalls how depressed the area seemed. They had come to see Mary's two uncles, Thornton and Marcellus Conley who lived on a farm near Tunnelton. They lived on the old Conley farm that has been in their family since 1833. She remembers going down to the spring to get water for the house. During the trip, John got an infected toe, and his father took him to a local doctor for assistance. Prior to the visit, he "assured" John that the doctor would likely just cut off his toe and all would be well! Montrose sent a "care package" to his uncles each week from Wilmette. After Minnie's death, Montrose became very lonely in his large home and decided to rent out a room. The local librarian rented the room, and to his two sister's astonishment, soon after married Montrose. To everyone's interest was the fact that she became pregnant and delivered a child when Montrose was 70 years old!

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3} Ancestry.com. Border Crossings From Canada to U.S., 1895-1956. (Name: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc.; Location: Provo, UT, USA; Date: 2010;)
   Database online.

   Record for Bernard Montrose Conley

2. ↑ ^{2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3} National Cemetery Administration. U.S. Veterans Gravesites, ca.1775-2006. (Name: Ancestry.com Operations Inc; Location: Provo, UT, USA; Date: 2006;)
   Database online.

   Record for Bernard Montrose Conley