Wife of Springfield, Ill. lawyer and businessman, William J. Conkling, taught school in Thetford, Vt., where she was born, and Uppersville, Virginia before coming west in 1852.
Travelled with her father by train and boat from Vermont to Illinois where her sister, Sarah, lived with her husband O.B. Heaton, a doctor and farmer in Virden, Ill. She stayed in Illinois and taught school briefly. Then in, 1855, married Conkling, also a real estate dealer and builder. She continued to teach in Sunday school and was very active in church work. She and William had three children: Ella, who married Henry Buckley; William H. who was the assistant Post Master of Springfield, a dealer in "gentlemen's furishing goods"and married Sarah J. Thompson of Jacksonville, Ill.; and Grace who married George W. Leaverton, a shoe and boot dealer. Olivia died October 30, 1905.
From the description of Diaries, 1850-1904. (Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library). WorldCat record id: 45611037
