Edwin Hurd Conger (1907)
CONGER
Posted By: Kent Transier (email)
Date: 2/22/2015 at 21:28:48
San Francisco Call
Volume 101, Number 170
May 19,1907Edwin H. Conger Dies at Pasadena After Long Illness
PASADENA. May 18. — Major. Edwin H. Conger, former minister to China and at one time one of the most notable members of the United States diplomatic corps, died at the family home in this city at 5:45 o'clock this afternoon. No hope for his recovery had been held out by the attending physicians for the past 24 hours. Daily for a week past Conger had gradually grown weaker and it was known this morning that he had but a few hours to live The family was at the bedside when the end came. Chronic dysentery was the direct cause of death.
Edwin Hurd Conger was born in Knox county, Illinois, March 7, 1843. His boyhood days were spent on a farm, and, after a common school education, he entered Lombard university at Petersburg, Ill, leaving with his degree in 1862.
BECOMES A SOLDIER
This was at the opening of the civil war. Conger enlisted as a private in Company I, One Hundred and Second Illinois volunteer infantry. He rose, step by step, until the close of the war, attaining the rank of captain and receiving from the president the brevet of major "for gallant and meritorious conduct on the field."
He entered the Albany law school, graduating with honors in 1866. He was admitted to the bar in his native state and entered upon active practice at Galesburg, Ill.
Removing to Dexter, Dallas county, Ia., he was elected county treasurer, and in 1880 began the first of two terms as state treasurer. Next he was elected to the forty-ninth congress and returned to the fiftieth and fifty-first congresses.
In 1891 President Harrison named Conger to be United States minister to Brazil, and for four years he labored in a successful manner to cement the relations between the two republics. President McKinley returned Conger to this Brazilian post upon entering the presidential office In March, 1897, following it the next year by transferring him to China.
THE BOXER UPRISING
When the Boxer uprising occurred and the streets of Peking were red with blood, Conger became the bulwark of the doomed foreigners in the Chinese capital. The United States legation was fortified under his direction and there began the famous siege, ultimately lifted by General Chaffee at the head of 2,500 American soldiers and marines, assisted by the allied forces of England. Russia and Japan.]
In the tedious negotiations over the indemnity to be demanded of the Chinese empire as recompense for the outrage Conger took a commanding position.
The weeks of the siege left an imprint upon the physique of the minister and injured his health. He came back to the United States on a furlough. His failing health forbade his return to China. President Roosevelt offered him the office of ambassador to Mexico and Conger accepted it, but his strength of body was not equal to the exacting duties of the office and he offered his resignation, which was accepted with regret. Since his retirement nearly two years ago Conger has resided In Pasadena.
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Transcriber's note: The deceased was a resident of Madison County in 1870.
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Madison Obituaries maintained by Linda Griffith Smith.
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