Frederick Augustus Conkling

Frederick Augustus Conkling (August 22, 1816 – September 18, 1891) was a United States Representative from New York during the American Civil War, as well as a Reconstruction-era banker, insurance company executive, and writer. He was born in Canajoharie, Montgomery County, New York, one of five children of Alfred Conkling (1789–1874), a U.S. Representative, federal judge, and later U.S. minister to Mexico, and his wife Eliza Cockburn. He was the elder brother of Roscoe Conkling (1829–1888), who would become a prominent U.S. Representative and U.S. Senator from New York and a leading figure in the Republican Party. Raised in a politically engaged family, Frederick Conkling pursued classical studies in his youth and attended The Albany Academy, receiving an education that prepared him for both commercial and public life.

After completing his studies, Conkling moved to New York City, where he engaged in mercantile pursuits. He became a member of the dry goods firm of Conkling & Churchill, establishing himself in the city’s commercial community at a time when New York was rapidly expanding as a national center of trade and finance. His business experience and family background in public affairs helped to propel him into politics, where he aligned himself with the emerging Republican Party in the 1850s.

Conkling’s political career began at the state level. He was elected as a Republican to the New York State Assembly, serving terms in 1854, 1859, and 1860. In the Assembly he participated in legislative debates during a period marked by intensifying sectional conflict over slavery and the Union. His service in Albany helped build his reputation as a capable legislator and positioned him for national office as the Republican Party gained strength in New York and across the North.

In the pivotal election of 1860, in which Abraham Lincoln was elected President, Conkling was elected as a Republican to the Thirty-seventh Congress, defeating Democrat John Winthrop Chanler. He represented a New York district in the U.S. House of Representatives from March 4, 1861, to March 3, 1863. As a member of the Republican Party representing New York, he contributed to the legislative process during his single term in office, participating in the democratic process and representing the interests of his constituents at a moment of national crisis. During his tenure he served as chairman of the House Committee on Ways and Means, a key position in shaping fiscal and economic policy during the early years of the Civil War. His congressional service coincided with the secession of Southern states and the outbreak of war, and he took part in debates over wartime finance and mobilization. He was an unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1862 to the Thirty-eighth Congress.

Conkling also played a direct role in the Union war effort. In June 1861, upon the outbreak of the Civil War, he organized the 84th Regiment of New York Volunteers, commonly associated with the New York militia, and became its colonel. He went to the front at the first call for 100-day men and initially served throughout the Shenandoah Valley Campaign, contributing to early Union operations in that strategically important region. In 1863 his regiment was on duty as provost guard at Baltimore, Maryland, helping to maintain order and secure a key Union city. His dual role as legislator and military officer reflected the intense mobilization of Northern political leaders during the conflict.

After leaving Congress, Conkling remained active in public life. He was the Republican candidate for mayor of New York City in 1868 but was unsuccessful in that bid. In the years that followed, he gradually shifted his political affiliations. Disillusioned with aspects of mainstream Republican leadership, he became first a Liberal Republican and later a Democrat. He spoke favorably of Liberal Republican presidential candidate Horace Greeley in 1872 and later of Democratic presidential nominee General Winfield Scott Hancock in 1880. Despite his changing party loyalties, he declined to reenter Congress, refusing the Democratic nomination for his old district in 1874.

Parallel to his political activities, Conkling developed a substantial career in finance and insurance during the Reconstruction era. He was one of the organizers of the West Side Savings Bank of New York City and served as its president for many years, contributing to the growth of local savings institutions in the postwar period. He subsequently became president of the Aetna Fire Insurance Company of Hartford, Connecticut, a significant firm in the national insurance industry, and served in that capacity until the company’s dissolution in 1880. In addition to his business leadership, he authored numerous pamphlets on political, commercial, and scientific subjects, reflecting his wide-ranging interests and engagement with contemporary economic and intellectual debates.

Conkling’s personal life connected him to some of New York’s most prominent mercantile and social families. He married Eleanora Lorillard Ronalds (1825–1879), the daughter of New York merchant Thomas Alexander Ronalds (1788–1835) and Maria Dorothea Lorillard (1790–1848). Through this marriage, Conkling was linked to the Lorillard family, as Eleanora was a granddaughter of Pierre Lorillard II, head of the Lorillard Tobacco Company, and a cousin of philanthropist Catharine Lorillard Wolfe. Frederick and Eleanora Conkling were the parents of three children: Alfred Ronalds Conkling (1850–1917), a New York City alderman and author who married Ethel Eastman Johnson, daughter of the painter Eastman Johnson; Howard Conkling (1855–1938), a noted lawyer; and a daughter, Helena Conkling. Through his son Alfred, he was the grandfather of Gwendolyn Lorillard Conkling, Vivien Eastman H. Conkling, and Muriel Lorillard Ronalds Conkling (1898–1971), who in 1922 married Baron Louis van Reigersberg Versluys (1883–1957) of Holland. Within one month of Muriel’s wedding, her mother married William H. Holden, and Muriel’s 79-year-old grandmother married 77-year-old General Stillman F. Kneeland, events that drew public notice in their time.

Frederick Augustus Conkling spent his later years in New York City, remaining identified with its commercial and civic life. After a protracted illness lasting about two years, he died at his residence at 27 East 10th Street in New York City on September 18, 1891. He was buried in Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn, New York, a resting place for many of the city’s political, military, and business leaders of the nineteenth century.