Felix Conkling, son of Joseph and Rebecca (Ross) Conkling was born on 14 December 1808 in Cincinnati, Ohio. He married Mary Linda Frazee on 9 August 1831, in Butler County, Ohio. Mary Linda Frazee was born in Butler County, Ohio. In an 1884 Wayne County Indiana history, Felix states that he was born near Cincinnati and grew up on a farm until the age of 16 when he learned the tanner's trade in Butler County, Ohio. He continued to work in Butler County as a tanner until 1836 when he and his family moved to Indiana along with the families of his brothers Aaron and Benjamin and sister Rebecca. Felix is listed on the 1838 Union County, Indiana tax list. Felix was in the hardware business for about 30 years, living first in Union County, Indiana and then moving to Cambridge City (Wayne County), Indiana. In 1845, Felix was a member of a court panel in Union County, Indiana which found that a man who had previously been declared insane was now said to be "restored to his right mind”. The Union County Indiana tax records of 1838 show that Felix lived in township 11, range 2, section 12. In the 1860 census, both Felix and his son, Joseph listed their occupation as tanner. Per the 1870 census, Felix was a hardware merchant in Cambridge City and all three of his sons (still living at home) were store clerks. Felix had purchased the hardware store from his cousin, Henry M. Conklin in 1859. In the 1880 census, Felix is described as a farmer and his sons, William and Joseph as hardware dealers. Felix had purchased a farm north of Cambridge City from his brother Benjamin. The family continued to live on this farm into the twentieth century. As of the mid-1990’s, Felix's great-granddaughter still lived in Cambridge City.
Mary died in May, 1878 and Felix died in 1894. Both are buried at the Riverside Cemetery in Cambridge City, Indiana
