Jonathan Clark Conger

CONGER

Posted By: Joanne Breen (email)
Date: 4/21/2023 at 15:04:08

Death of J C Conger.

Mr. Clark Conger, as he was known by everyone in the country, died last Wednesday morning, November 2, from old age. He as ill only about a week and it is probably accurate to say that he died from infirmities due to old age.

He lived with his daughter, Mrs C.J. Wilson, since the death of his wife, about twelve years ago. Mr. Conger was born in New York Sept 18, 1819. He was bound out when a boy to learn the shoemaker's trade. He ran away from his employer on account of mistreatment and oppression and came west to make his own way. He located in Washington in the early forties and worked at his trade for years. He began to buy land and owned a good many farms at different times. For many years he rented them and we know a good many young men who got their start working his farms. He was always a just landlord. We know of cases where renters lost their crops and Mr. Conger forgave the debt. He always wanted his men to make something. If a tenant remained with Mr. Conger, he usually found himself able to buy a farm when he left him.

We never knew him well, but heard a great deal about him and tell us that bad news travels fast; we can also testify that good words travel fast, for long before we had even seen Mr. Conger or met him, we knew that he was regarded as a just man and a good man.

He was noted as a man or wit and nobody enjoyed a joke any better than he did. A story he like to tell was when he was shoemaker, an early settler traded him a quarter of beef that was to be very fat. It proved very lean and when he asked the old settler about it he replied that if he had taken a forequarter it would have been awfully fat, but the cow had been milked so much that the hindquarter was all milked away.

We do not know that he ever belonged to any church or to any lodge or to any society. We believe his record left behind him is his best monument. A reputation for fairness and kindness, to the men who worked for him and to….(illegible).

His children are Mrs. C J Wilson, Mrs. Stanton of Omaha and Mrs. Twining of Des Moines. One daughter Mrs. Mitchell is dead.

The funeral took place Friday afternoon and was conducted by Rev. Jones of the Episcopalian church.

The pall bearers were C H Wilson, Frank Wilson, Charles H-----, J A Cunningham, A H W--------, Isaac McKenry, Capt. Waite, Col. Shields.

Washington Democrat, 9 November 1904