Edgar Conkling - Modern founder

Edgar Conkling - Modern founder. Mackinaw City Historical Pathway. , Edgar Conkling, Mackinaw City's founding father, platted the town in 1857 in anticipation of the arrival of a railroad., Born in New York in 1812, his family moved to Ohio where he met and married his wife, Belinda. They moved to Illinois and then to Cincinnati, Ohio where he started a paint manufacturing business. He also speculated in railroad stock and land development., Once a railroad from Cincinnati to Toledo was completed, he and Belinda traveled north to Toledo to board a ship to visit Mackinac Island. As a land speculator, he decided the tip of the mitt area would ultimately become the "Chicago of the north." He bought thousands of acres of land around what would become Mackinaw City and St. Ignace awaiting the arrival of the railroad., He laid out the town of Mackinaw City in a compact grid with large lots, for the time, of 50 by 150 feet, streets 80-feet wide, and 5-foot- wide sidewalks. The Civil War interrupted the extension of the rail- road and the trains did not arrive until the time of his death in 1881. His dream went unfulfilled., [Captions:] , The Conklings had no children. Their vast holdings were passed to Edgar's brothers., Edgar was in constant legal battles to protect his land purchases. Here he posted his claims, particularly to warn the Wendell' brothers of Mackinac Island., He was politically well connected and there are many letters he wrote to President Lincoln in support of Civil War refugees.