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Cleland - Conklin
Bessie Cleland, born September 27, 1856 at Natchez, Miss., was the daughter of the Rev. Thomas Horace Cleland and Lucretia Savage Cleland. Bessie's father was a Presbyterian minister. Her mother died of yellow fever October 24, 1858 in her 31st year, after giving birth to twins, when Bessie was two years old. The twins also died and were buried in the coffin with their mother. Burial was in the cemetery at Natchez.
Thomas H. Cleland's second marriage was to Sarah Rosanna Ray of Lebanon, Kentucky, and they had four children: Horace Ray, Effie Purnell, John Irvine and William Gibbs. Horace and Effie were born at Natchez. Effie was born during the shelling of Natchez in the Civil War, and as soon as her mother was able to travel, the family went to the "back country" away from the Mississippi River in Copiah County. John Irvine was born while they were living there. Later the family moved to Fayette, Miss., where Bessie's father was head of the girl's school. William Gibbs was born in Fayette, and his mother died in Fayette on December 11, 1867 when he was ten months old. Bessie was 11 at the time. Sarah Rosanna Cleland's grave is in the cemetery at Natchez. The five children of Thomas H. Cleland then went to Kentucky to live with Mrs. Ray, the mother of Sarah Rosanna Ray Cleland.
When Bessie was 12 her father married a third time, and Bessie went to live with her mother's sister Julia Savage Robb and her husband Samuel N. Robb at pecan Grove plantation near Rodney, Miss., which was near Natchez.
Thomas Cleland lived in Delhi, Louisiana, when he was married to his third wife whose initials were M. T. It is believed that she was related to the Savage family. This was her third marriage also. She had a son Tollie by her first marriage and a daughter Lettie (Letitia) by her second marriage. Thomas H. Cleland's four children by his second marriage lived with them in Delhi. He has a son by his third marriage, George McDuffy Cleland, who died when he was 13. Besides preaching in Monroe, La., Thomas Cleland taught school in an Academy he established on his property in Delhi. After he died on February 17, 1878, his four children by his second marriage went back to live in Kentucky with Ray relatives. Thomas Cleland's grave is in the cemetery at Natchez in the plot with his first and second wives. His third wife was buried in Delhi, La.
During the time Bessie lived at Pecan Grove plantation, William Burke Conklin and a younger brother Walter Welch Conklin, who were from Grand Gulf, Miss., also spent time at the plantation. The boys were befriended by the Robb's after their father died. The Robb's had no children of their own as their children died as babies, and they practically adopted the boys. They sent them to a prep school in New England and expected to send them on to Dartmouth. However, the Civil War broke out and the boys returned to the plantation. Samuel Robb later suffered some financial losses, making it impossible to send them on to college.
When Bessie was 14 she was sent to Omaha, Nebraska, to live with her uncle, James Woodruff Savage, and his wife, Lucy L. Morris Savage, in order for her to complete her education. She attended Brownell Hall, a private girl's school in Omaha.
James W. Savage was a Colonel in the Union Army. He was also a judge and a very important man. He was sent by the railroad out to Nevada to be present at the ceremony of the Golden Spike when the two railroads met.
William Conklin, who was seven years older than Bessie, had fallen in love with her before she left the plantation, and considered they were engaged when she left for Omaha. The Robb's approved of the match.
William stayed on at Pecan Grove for a while to look after things for Mrs. Robb after her husband's death in May 1871, but later went to Nebraska, possibly to be nearer Bessie. They were married October 5, 1875, in Omaha, Neb., and went to North Platte, Nebraska, to live.
William Conklin was cashier of a bank owned by Mr. Thaddeus Foley in North Platte. These were the days of Buffalo Bill, and there were Indians who came into town frequently. The Conklin's were acquainted with some of Buffalo Bill's family who loved on a farm outside of North Platte.
The Conklin's four daughters were born in North Platte: Bessie Lucretia, Julia, Effie Louise and Alice May.
When Mr. Foley sold the bank in North Platte, the Conklin's moved to Chicago, and settled in Austin. This was the year of the Chicago World Fair of 1893. My grandfather, William Conklin, went into the real estate business and later worked for a company owned by Mr. Ed Davis that made bicycles before going back into the banking business. He was associated with a bank on the north west side of Chicago where he was Vice President at the time of his death.
I was only six years old when my grandfather passed away, but I remember him very clearly. We lived across the street from my grandparents. He was tall, slender and stood very erect. He was a kind and gentle man, and was loved and respected by his family, business associates and friends. He was an Elder in the Austin Presbyterian Church. He was also a Mason.
His health was not too good in the years that I knew him as he was subject to bronchitis, making it necessary for him to go south to Biloxi, Miss. sometimes in the winter months. He also had a heart ailment. He had a heart attack and passed away on October 11, 1915, just before his 66th birthday. He was born October 14, 1849 in Grand Gulf, Miss.
My Grandmother Conklin was short and a little plump, and to my brother and me she was "Nannie." She was a devout Presbyterian and was active in the Austin Presbyterian Church, where she was President of the Women's Association, and she taught a Sunday School Class of high school girls. In her latter years she liked to write poetry.
After my grandfather passed away, my Grandmother Conklin made her home with her daughter Louise (my mother) and her husband Robert Mack Campbell (my father), my brother Robert Mack Campbell, Jr. and me. She lived with us for the next 27 years, but often made visits to other members of the family.
We moved to Oak Park, Illinois, in April 1925, and on January 1, 1932 we went to Kewanee, Illinois, to live. My father passed away on August 6, 1941, and on October 1, 1941, my mother, grandmother and I came back to Chicago to join my brother. We lived in the Ravenswood area where my brother was employed.
My grandmother's health, which had not been very good during the last ten years, failed during the next year, and she passed away on September 20, 1942, of heart failure, a week before her 86th birthday. The graves of William B. and Bessie C. Conklin, also their daughter Julia Conklin Allen, are in Forest Home Cemetery, Forest Park, Illinois.
Pecan Grove Plantation
I am told that during the Civil War (1861 - 1865) a shell came over the house at the plantation a hit a barn. The Robb's silver was buried in the ground during the war to prevent looting by the soldiers. After the war was over, the silver was dug up, and a spade hit a silver pitcher and made a dent in it. The pitcher had been an heirloom in the Savage family, and there was a tradition that it was to be handed down to the eldest daughter in each generation. Bessie Conklin gave the pitcher to her daughter Bess Woodbury when she went to live with her daughter Louise, and Bess Woodbury gave it to her daughter Elizabeth Markley when she gave up her home. One of Elizabeth Markley's daughters (*) has the picture now and it still had the sent in it. Bessie Conklin wrote a story, "The Silver Pitcher, which is fictional but based on the facts about the pitcher. Elizabeth Markley's family also has some coin silverware that belonged to the Robb family.
I have a dressing table that came from the plantation, and my brother Bob Campbell's family has a silver goblet that also came from the plantation.
I an told that Rodney, Miss., is now a ghost town with only the Presbyterian Church left, and Pecan Grove Plantation was destroyed by the Mississippi River many years ago.
Grand Gulf, Miss.
Grand Gulf was a very active river port for shipping cotton. It is now a ghost town as nearly all of it caved into the Mississippi River or was destroyed in the Civil War.
(Above written by Julie A. Campbell Granddaughter of William B. & Bessie C. Conklin)
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