Conkling family.

James C. Conkling came to Springfield, Ill. after graduating from Princeton and practiced law, served as mayor, legislator, state agent in Washington, D.C. during the Civil War, and was founder and member over 30 years of the Lincoln Monument Association, while his son Clinton graduated from Yale, practiced law in Springfield and served as secretary for the Lincoln Monument Association for a number of years. James wife, Merci, helped found the Home for the Friendless in Springfield. The family knew the Lincolns well and were well known socially and politically as Whigs and then Republicans. They were devout Presbyterians and in favor of temperance.