Person:William Conklin (18)

Came to Saginaw, Michigan in 1865. In 1866 William Conklin moved to Greenbush, Michigan with his wife of five years, Emma, their son and infant daughter.

Two years later he was one of a committee of five to organize a separate AlconaCounty (the area was then a part of Alpena County). Legislative approval camein 1869 and in that year Greenbush Township was formed. William was the first supervisior serving until his death in 1877. He was a first County Supervisor and one of three to set up the County government; and, to select a site for the Court House, building a jail, establishing a poor house, and setting up government offices.

In Greenbush he owned a large stable for sixty horses; was the express agent and a lumber mill owner/operator.

William Conklin's death is reported as a suicide. The Alcona County Review of that time reports much controversy over the event; some people even suggesting that he was murdered by his wife. He died of a gunshot wound and the gun was, reportedly, never found.

Jane, on the death certificate as his mother, was in fact his stepmother.

KAC:.. See Letter to the Editor, re Edward LaChapelle, The Review, J. R. Fairchild, publisher, of Friday, July 1, 1881.

KMH - 23 May 1996 - Alpena Argus - 11 July 1877 A special telegram to tthe Courier on yesterday announced the death of Wm. Conklin, of Greenbush, Alcona county, by suicide. A coroner's inquest was held yesterday, the jury returning a verdict that he died from a pistol shot inflicted by his own hand. The ball entered the head, and entering the brain death ensued almost instantaneously. The cause for the rash act, if known, has not been made public. The report, apparently well founded, is that he shot himself in the presence of his wife. Deceased was in easy circumstances, being largely engaged in lumbering business at Greenbush. He owned a valuable farm near this city, and, we understand, owned considerable property in Detroit and Buffalo. He was possessed of a jovial, pleasant-loving tempermentt, and seemed to enjoy life so throughly that his intimate friends in this city cannot account for the rash act. - Saginaw Courier.