CONKLE, SAMUEL Q. -- The Conkle family trace their origin in this country to their Dutch ancestors who settled in Pennsylvania in early days, and S. Q. Conkle of Garden Grove is the representative of the California branch of his family. Mr. Conkle was born September 8, 1846, near East Liverpool, Columbiana County, Ohio. His father, Daniel, was a native of Columbiana County and his mother, who was Barbara Poor in maidenhood, was born in Westmoreland County and came to Ohio, where she was reared. His parents were married in Ohio, where the father, a stockman and farmer, owned a large farm and bought sheep for the Pittsburgh markets, in early days driving his droves and herds through on foot to that city. He also drove sheep into Missouri in the early fifties. The father, at the age of sixty-five, sold his farm and moved to Minerva, near Canton, Stark County, Ohio, where he lived retired until the time of his death in 1887, at the age of seventy-five. The mother died at the age of seventy. In the parental family of eight children, three girls and five boys, Samuel Q. Conkle is the youngest child, and the only one of the family now living. None of his brothers died under the age of seventy-five. His oldest brother was a civil engineer in Stark County, Ohio; some of the brothers were farmers, and Noah F. was a merchant at Topeka, Kans. for twenty years. Three of his brothers served in the Union Army during the Civil War.
Samuel Q. was educated in the district schools of his native state and at Mount Union Academy, and began life as a clerk in the produce business at Minerva, Ohio, in which he was employed three years, from twenty-one until twenty-four years of age. He then bought out his employer and continued to conduct a wholesale business as a shipper of butter, eggs, and poultry, shipping to the Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, New York City, and Baltimore markets for ten years, and doing a profitable business. Having contracted asthma, he sold his interests in the East and came to Orange County, Cal., then a part of Los Angeles County. first settling at Santa Ana in 1885. After two years he moved to his ranch of twenty-two acres in the Bolsa district between Santa Ana and Bolsa, being a part of the Stearns' Rancho, where he engaged in farming. He also owned eighty acres in the Black Star Canyon where he accumulated some 225 colonies of bees. He had learned the bee business in Ohio, but owing to climatic conditions found it was much different in California, and had to practically learn the business over again. He succeeded and became one of Orange County's most successful apiarists.
His marriage, which occurred in Sandyville, Ohio, January 24, 1872, united him with Miss Normanda McFarland, a native of Tuscarawas County, Ohio, and daughter of John McFarland, a hotel keeper at Sandyville. Six children were born of their union, five of whom are living, the second child dying in infancy. Ura Bertie is the wife of Frank Mills, a prosperous rancher at Garden Grove; Hazel is the wife of Samuel McKee, of Los Angeles; Lemon L. runs an auto truck in Los Angeles, is married and lives in that city; Mellie is the wife of John Bedabach, a dealer in stock, and their home is at Pasadena. Roscoe lives in Los Angeles, and is single. Owing to his wife's failing health Mr. Conkle disposed of his home ranch and they made their home with Mrs. Mills, where Mrs. Conkle died in 1910. Mr. Conkle then came to Garden Grove and built a comfortable bungalow on Pine Street, where he now resides. Mrs. Conkle was a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church. Mr. Conkle still owns ten acres south of Garden Grove which is leased. In 1918 he suffered a stroke of paralysis, and lay unconscious for three weeks, but his great vitality enabled him to make a good recovery. He was well acquainted with the late ex-President McKinley, who was his legal adviser while he lived in Ohio. One of Garden Grove's most highly respected citizens he has the satisfaction of knowing that his long and useful life has been well spent, and his children, who were born with a good inheritance, are living useful, active lives, honored and esteemed by their friends and acquaintances. In his political views Mr. Conkle is a Republican. He never was sued nor ever sued any person, nor did he ever serve on a jury or hold office of any kind.
