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The Mystery of David Conklin 6/01/1760 - 1854 Note: The original intention of this page was to have something to direct specific individuals to in order to explain a subject that had grown somewhat complex. So for the first six months of its existence, I kept it unlisted and disallowed in my robots text file. But I recently decided to "turn it loose," so to speak. It might be of interest to someone interested in the subject of Revolutionary War veterans, lost graves, lost history, with maybe a little "Indiana Jones" thrown in. During the summer of 2023, I took it upon myself to try and solve a lot of the mystery surrounding an ancestor of mine, my greatx3 grandfather, also named David, a Revolutionary War veteran who was also the progenitor of many Conklins. But after months of researching, I couldn’t verify much more than what my greatx2 grandfather’s obituary states. So I still do not know any of the following information with certainty: who his parents were; his date of death; my greatx3 grandmother's name, exact birth and death dates, and parentage etc.; and his and his spouse’s burial location. So I decided to try the same approach as I did with another person of interest, which did eventually bear some fruit. Here are the relevant excerpts from my greatx2 grandfather’s (John C. Conklin 1805-1894) obituary: [He was born in Dutchess County, N.Y. He moved to Wyoming County Penn. with his father’s family when a boy and from there to Ohio, and first settled at Worthington, thence moving to Licking County, Hartford Township, reaching here on his fourteenth birthday, where he helped to clear the land and make their home in the new West. He came of revolutionary parentage, his mother’s father giving his life for the cause of freedom, and his own father, David Conklin, entered the army the army at the age of sixteen, under the command of his older brother John, for whom he afterwards named his son. He was the third child of a family of eleven children, all of whom lived to an old age, and one only, a brother, is living in Iowa.] On top of all this, the available information regarding David’s children has been very muddled, missing or just plain wrong except for John C. and two of his brothers, Mathew and Silas, although slowly-but- surely, I think the missing pieces are coming together. So how did this happen? Well, first, the Licking County Courthouse burnt down in 1875. Then David’s burial location became lost. David’s 67-acre farm was (and still is) just a few thousand feet east of the village of Hartford (Croton) Ohio, but I have found no evidence he was buried near the village. Then I found a document online, or a reference to a document, that lists him as buried in Orange Township, Delaware County, Ohio. And I did find a headstone in Africa Cemetery, located in Orange Township. The headstone was there, anyway, in 1973, just before the cemetery was relocated to make way for Alum Creek Reservoir. It was in a Conklin plot, and now it is, of course, missing. |
The blue-highlighted plot, by the way, was purchased by Mathew Conklin's son, David 1834-1916. Mathew Conklin, one of 1760 David's children, purchased the green-highlighted plots.
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Upon excavation, the two unmarked spaces in the Conklin plot to the immediate left of 138 (282 & 281) proved to be graves. 138 and the space to its immediate right (280) proved not to be graves, at all. So apparently, as the headstone was unreadable, it was decided not to re-erect the headstone at the new location. In general, the US Army Corps of Engineers did a great job relocating the cemetery. Photos were taken of every headstone and every grave before the headstones were removed. And known graves that did not have markers, as well as all unknowns, were all given markers at the new location. However, despite a recent search for the photos and any record of what became of the headstone, the USACE has come up empty—except for one large B&W photo of Section A taken before the relocation, which I will get to. It has been suggested to me that the three trustees and three USACE representatives overseeing the relocation might have simply discarded the headstone, but given the USACE’s attention to detail and the fact that cemeteries in general tend to keep loose headstones around, I am very skeptical and think the opposite might be true—that they actually did something with the stone to preserve it from further erosion, which leads to me speculate that they may have simply buried it in plot 33. But with no paperwork to back up my speculation, it’s now down to ground penetrating radar on that front—if a spare thousand-dollar bill ever falls out of the sky into my lap. So what I am looking for is any information pertaining
to 1760 David himself, his spouse, or his children (I am not putting
together family trees, but I would like to get the list straight);
photos of Section A
at Africa
taken before the relocation, or any information pertaining to the
present whereabouts of the missing headstone. I would like to locate
it, of course, to see if the inscription could possibly be read with
modern technology. Afterwards, I would like to see the stone retored to
its original above-ground location. So there you have it. If
you
think you have some
info that may help, see my index page for contact info. Extra The cemetery trustees at the time of the relocation,
were: All three are deceased and buried in Africa cemetery. The three individuals overseeing the relocation for the
Army Corps of Engineers were: The person who signed the release papers for most of the Conklin graves in Section A, back in 1973, was Mathew Conklin’s grandson, Burke Anderson Conklin 1877-1977. So there are four corroborating documents indicating David was born in 1760. The other “standard info” is that his wife was named Mary Hays 1760-1840; however, I have never seen a source listed for the information, and the 1830 census for Hartford Township, Licking County, Ohio indicates David’s spouse could not have been born prior to 1770. With a pretty high-degree of confidence, I do believe I can say what the shape and size of the missing headstone was: As mentioned, the USACE found a photo of Section-A taken before the relocation. Without going into detail, I cannot find another headstone to account for the one peaking out from behind the large obelisk in the foreground of this enlarged crop of the aforementioned photo. |
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It might look strange, at first, jutting out and then going vertical, but tall slab-type stone with an angled top would look that way if leaning back about 15 degrees. I looked into these slab-type headstones with the pointed tops, and it looks like they were most popular from the early 1850s to the early 1860s, so 1854 would fit the time period for these headstones perfectly. And all the ones I have seen are marble, which, of course, runs soft and is more prone to erosion than some other types of stone. So, all-in-all, it looks like a very good candidate for 1760 David’s headstone, as no other Conklins from his line are known to have died until later in the century. Here are a few examples. I have a feeling the one on the right is probably very similar. |
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I discovered David’s pension application and associated documents online here: National Archives NextGen Catalog. The application iself equals pages 28, 27 and 26, in that order. Some of David’s story can be derived from the documents, which goes: He was born near Fishkill, Dutchess County, NY on June 1st, 1850 (as the 1830, 1840 and 1850 census pages for Hartford Township and my greatx2 grandfather's obituary all agree that David’s birth year was 1860, I suspect there was a misunderstanding when David was giving his deposition.) At some point in time he lived in Hackensack (New Hackensack?) and was living near Poughkeepsie when he volunteered for the Continental Army in 1777. He and his older brother, John, served in different companies. The first year of his enlistment, he served under Captain William Livingston, who so happened to be his cousin. And at some point during that year, he skipped two ranks (Corporal and Sergeant) and was promoted to First Lieutenant. At one point, he was put in command of the company in a battle against the British and Indians on the west side of the North River. The upper ranks of his unit were General Schuyler, followed by Colonel Du Bois. David stayed on to serve two years under Captain Hagaman and six months under Captain Todd. After the war, he continued to reside near Poughkeepsie until moving to Ohio about 1819. David reportedly made an attempt to apply for his pension in 1833, but never received a response. The above is from his second attempt, delivered to the Commissioner of Pensions on January 19, 1854. Despite the best efforts of a lot of people, a number of whom signed sworn statements defending David’s veracity, his pension was declined. A big factor was probably the fact he had lost all his papers during the 74 years since his discharge. The last papers delivered to the pension bureau were dated August 9th, 1854. There are a couple DAR, and at least one SAR, applications for David; however, they are fraught with errors, they apparently draw on information provided by the pension bureau regarding David's service, and do not shed any light on any of the questions surrounding David. The present situation surrounding David’s 11 children looks something like this:
Note: The 1820 census for Hartford Township lists seven boys and three girls in the David Conklin household, excluding David and his spouse. The best candidates for David’s parents I am currently aware of are, https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/120839818/jacob-concklin This is based on a pdf document prepared by one Patricia Wardell titled “Early Bergen County (NJ) Families,” page 31-32. However, even though the David listed is the best match in the genealogical record I have come across, he is listed as having been born on March 14, 1764. And even though 1760 David's pension application mentions he lived in Hackensack at some point in time, he might very well be referring to New Hackensack, in Dutchess County. And, on top of that, it would seem unlikely that he would be living near Poukeepsie, NY when he volunteered for the Continental Army at age 16 if his parents were living in Bergen County NJ. And, at the time I write this, I do not know of any connection between a sibling of Jacob or Hester and Captain William Livingston. Update 8/16/24: I think there is a good possibility I have located the missing headstone. Back in May, I tried poking around in space 138 with a 20”-long steel rod, for the heck of it. And I discovered something solid about 6” below the surface right where a headstone would normally be. Although I didn’t find any other such solid objects elsewhere in the plot at such a shallow depth, I kind of passed it off as a likely rock. And there seems to be a layer of small rocks about 12” below the surface a little further into the space. The first week of July, I returned to focus my sole attention on the object and document it. Well, it is narrow, about 10” long, and it is somewhat pointed in shape, although I could not detect a perfect point. So it is either the top of a headstone or a very coincidental rock. I would put the odds at about 60/40 in favor of a headstone. If I could have detected a definite point, I would have put the odds quite a bit higher. Anyway, on July 8th, I proposed to Orange Township that a 2' X 2' X 14" deep square be excavated to investigate the object. Of course, all they have done is give me the runaround and if one excuse doesn’t stick, they invent another. The first excuse I got from Kim Mahaney, the Orange Township administrator in charge of the cemetery, was, “There is not sufficient proof that your decedent (sic) did not die of an contagious or infectious disease.” #1 I assume she meant, ancestor. #2 Kim should know better than anyone, besides me perhaps, that there are no remains anywhere near my proposed shovel dig. When that didn't stick she came up with a new one, but I could not comprehend whatever it was she was trying to convey. I assume she is being directed by the township trustees. I'm telling you, first the guy (1760 David) gets let down by the government after doing his part to form the country into what it is, then he gets let down by family who apparently forget many details about him, including his burial location, and now, it appears he is getting let down by another bunch of idiots. The guy just can't catch a break. I can relate, though. These are the images I have sent to Kim. The diagram is the same except that I have added the buried object itself. The diagram is something I originally made up to present to a GPR outfit, until I learned it would cost at least a grand. The lot and burial information is all based on the US Army Corps of Engineers records from the relocation in 1973, and the cemetery's present records. Note: The spaces stretching from 140 to 280 are 3' wide. Note 2: It should be noted that the elevation at Africa Cemetery is man made, created out of drainage concerns. |
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Update 12/10/24: When researching really old events, you know not to get too hopeful, but I recently discovered a possible reason why David’s spouse was not buried at Hartford, where she lived, but rather Africa Cemetery, some fifteen miles to the west. I knew that my distant ancestors were abolitionists, and I suspected it might have something to do with it, but I never realized the extent they were bullied and persecuted for their values. I recently came across a document online about the early history of Hartford Township. Of great interest is an account written by one A. B. Clark about what is referred to as the “Abolition Riots,” with the central focus being events which took place in 1837. In a nutshell, my ancestors (part a clan from Granville Mass.) owned the eastern half of the township. Other people, with a different set of values, immigrated to the western half, mostly homesteaders, I believe. As one of the easterners, Mr. Clark does not use very kind words to describe the westerners, as they began threatening anyone who would speak their mind about slavery and even carried out physical attacks against the abolitionists. Src: Licking County, Ohio History. Scroll down to Chapter LIV, “Hartford Township.” Side note: The document linked to above, just a small section of a lengthy book about Licking County, Ohio, mentions some of my ancestors directly, being: Strong Clark, Daniel I. Durfey, Clark Cooley and J. (John) C. Conklin. As it stands, the only documentation I am aware of regarding David’s spouse are those DAR and SAR entries that I mentioned earlier on this page, which are fraught with errors. Those, along with the US census, place her name as Mary, and death at around 1840, fourteen years before David died. Africa Cemetery is named after the village of Africa, which became known as Africa after locals kept referring to it as Africa because a group of African Americans settled there. And I guess the roads running north from Africa along Alum Creek (past the original location of Africa Cemetery) were considered part of the Underground Railroad. As noted, George Conklin, one of David's children, owned a farm in Berlin Township (north of Africa Cem.) and joined the Union Army in his forties. David's spouse would have been one of the first burials in Africa Cemetery, and if she indeed died after 1837, I would have to say the reason she is buried there is looking more obvious than ever: “This is what I stand for.” I reduced my proposed hole size to 4” by 10” by 10” deep—not large enough to get a decent photo of the object, but just large enough to perhaps determine if it is something man-made or not, but the township still will not investigate. Well, locating this gravesite was no easy task, so you know how I feel about it. If any of this incenses you, as well, here is the township website. Let them know how you feel; it won’t bother me any: Cemetery - Elementor - Orange Township |
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