Years ago, when I first started my family research, all I knew about the Meconkey family was that my great-great-great-grandmother was Mary Meconkey before she married James McFarland. I later learned that she was the sister of David Meconkey, who had been one of the wealthier men in West Chester in the mid 1800′s. Though there is plenty of information at the Chester County Historical Society about David Meconkey’s business affairs, information about his personal life, and that of his family, is much harder to find.

David was born in Howellville in Tredyffrin township in 1799 and died in West Chester in 1868. He was married to Catherine Jones in 1839 and they had two sons, Elbridge and Richard. Sadly, Catherine died less than a year after her second son was born. David remarried eight years later, in 1851, to Sarah Brinton. Sarah would outlive both her step-sons and her husband, living out the rest of her life in West Chester, a very wealthy, if somewhat eccentric, woman of means. I’ll get back to Sarah shortly.

I haven’t been able to learn much about Elbridge’s early years, but his younger brother, Richard, went away to prep school at Philips Exeter where he became a close personal friend of Abraham Lincoln’s son, Robert. Richard and Robert were also at Harvard together and Richard was an occasional visitor to the Lincoln White House as Robert’s guest. Needless to say, the West Chester Meconkeys were strong supporters of Lincoln. With such illustrious connections, one would have expected Richard to have every advantage in life, but, sadly, he committed suicide in 1873 at age 30.

Tracking down information about Richard was a challenge.  A report from the 1867 Secretary’s Report of the Harvard Class of 1864 shed a bit of light:

RICHARD JONES MECONKEY. He was born in West Chester, Penn., July 28, 1842.

He was obliged to leave the Class early in the second term of the Senior year on account of ill health. He remained near Philadelphia under medical treatment during the summer of 1864. He then went on a farm, where he still remains, his health having greatly improved.

Finally, in 1874, the Harvard Class Report gives more details:

*RICHARD JONES MECONKEY. He remained at home on his father’s farm (West Chester, Penn.), his health slowly but gradually improving, until towards the close of the year 1872, when a change for the worse took place in his condition. It soon became manifest that he would again have to be removed to an asylum, in which he had been placed soon after leaving Cambridge in 1864. He begged to be allowed his liberty a little longer, promising not to injure himself or others. On the afternoon of February 5, 1873, however, he managed to escape from his attendant, and was soon found alone in the reservoir, into which he had thrown himself. All efforts to resuscitate him proved fruitless.

Richard’s brother Elbridge, meanwhile, had served in the First Division Pennsylvania Reserves, achieving the rank of brevet major. He had been an aide-de-camp to General McCall and, after being wounded at Gaine’s Mill, in 1862, had desired to be appointed as a Quarter Master, a move which was endorsed by President Lincoln, but the appointment never came to pass. In 1868, he was admitted to the Chester County bar, and the following year, married Miss Fannie Berghaus of Harrisburg. His obituary from 1887 highlights his successful life, but, like his younger brother, it was ended by his own hand:

Death of Major Meconkey

A Useful Life Ended in an Unexpected Manner

The saddest event of recent years in this city was the death yesterday morning of Major Meconkey, by his own hand, in the office of the Pennsylvania Agricultural Society about 11 o’clock. For some time, the Major has been despondent, the result of protracted ill health, and recently evidences have disclosed the fact that his reason was unseated. But no one who knew him apprehended such an issue of his troubles and the entire community was shocked when the news of the sad occurrence spread as it did with lightning rapidity throughout the city.

Major Meconkey was in every respect one of the most estimable citizens of the Commonwealth. Endowed by nature with a wonderfully strong physical and mental system, his education added to his acquirements and marked him as a man of remarkable parts. He was born in Chester county forty-nine years ago and enjoyed all the advantages of wealth and position. He was a student of Yale College and afterwards graduated from the law school of Harvard University. At the breaking out of the war he entered the army and became an officer on the staff of General McCall who commanded the Pennsylvania Reserves. His military record is radiant with brilliant services and his civil life is marked by a devotion to every duty that devolved upon him and a faithful performance of every work.

At the close of the war, Major Meconkey, having been previously admitted to the bar of Chester County, married Miss Berghaus and located here for the practice of his profession. Subsequently he removed to Quincy, Illinois but soon returned to Harrisburg. He served as one of the reading clerks of the House of Representatives in Congress with marked success and during the session of 1875-76 and ’83 was resident clerk of the House of Representatives of the Pennsylvania Legislature. In this important office he manifested a zeal and ability in the discharge of his duties that won the respect and the admiration of the entire state.

Since abandoning the practice of his profession Major Meconkey has devoted himself to business pursuits. He was for some years the Secretary of the Harrisburg Gas Company and the Corresponding Secretary of the Pennsylvania Agricultural Society. I the latter office he exhibited a knowledge and versatility that made him an invaluable member of the society. His work was as much a labor of love as a duty to the society, and he was early and late in the harness.

Few men were blessed with the amiable characteristics that made Major Meconkey universally popular. He had a phenomenally strong and accurate memory, and his store of reminiscences was wonderfully large and well-filled. Gifted with the faculty of entertaining narrative, he was always a genial and pleasant companion, Devoted to his friends, generous, manly and correct, his attachments were sincere, honest and constant. In the whole course of his life he never willfully wronged a man and if by inadvertence harm had come from his actions to any living being he never rested until full reparation had been made.

The deceased leaves a wife and four children, two sons and two daughters, to mourn his untimely death: The oldest of the children, John, a manly and estimable young fellow, is employed in the machine department of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company at Altoona. He arrived home last evening. The second son, Charles, is a pupil at Yale College and is expected home this evening. The daughters, accomplished young ladies are in the city. The funeral, which will be private, will occur tomorrow (Wednesday) evening at 5 o’clock.

On New Year’s Eve, 1887, David’s second wife, Sarah, passed away at the age of 81. Having been the major beneficiary of her husband’s wealth, her estate was ultimately valued at about $800,000. An article from the Philadelphia Inquirer on January 5, 1888, mentions the deaths of David and his sons:

Little Comfort in her Wealth

West Chester, Jan 4 – Mrs. Sarah B. McConkey, who was probably the richest woman in Chester County, was buried yesterday. She lived alone in a large and magnificently furnished brown stone mansion. She was found dead in bed on Sunday morning, lying upon a small iron bedstead in a poorly furnished room, and with her faithful cat sitting by her side. The will was read yesterday, all her estate, amounting to about $800,000, going to her relatives. She was the mother of Elbridge McConkey, who at one time held a position at Harrisburg, and who hanged himself about a year ago in his office in that city. Her husband and one other son also committed suicide by drowning. The ex-Registrar of Wills and the new incumbent are disputing over who shall the $1500 fee.

Note the line I bolded: did David also commit suicide or was this just a mistake on the part of the journalist? The only mention I could find of David’s death stated that he had a stroke of apolexy. Yet another little mystery.

A final note to Sarah’s passing, which somehow just fits in with all the other quirks:

He Wants The Widow’s Estate

[by telegraph to the Herald]

West Chester, Pa, July 13, 1888 . Some time ago, Mrs. Sarah Brinley McConkey, an aged lady, died here, leaving a fortune estimated at $900,000. which she willed to her nephews. Now Emmanuel Johnson, of Meyersdale, Somerset county, Pa., lays claim to the estate, asserting that he is Mrs. McConkey’s adopted son. Today Johnson came here and was shown the will in the Register’s office. He looked it over carefully and then said:

“She left me everything. I will investigate this thing. They are trying to keep this away from me, but I’ll show them. I have served on the farm she left me in Somerset.”

“When did she leave it to you?” asked the Deputy Register.

“The very night she died. It was by secret communication.”

“Then you are a Spiritualist, are you?” asked the Deputy Register. Johnson left the office without making answer and has not been seen since.

Source: New York Herald, 7/14/1888