American Biography

William M. Conkling was born, March 11th, 1815, in Butler county, Ohio, near the village of Reily. He is the first of nine children of Isaac Conkling and Rebecca (Marsh) Conkling, both natives of New Jersey. Isaac Conkling was a blacksmith and farmer, who moved to Ohio in 1805, in company with his father, Joseph Conkling, and his uncle, Stephen Conkling. They settled in Hamilton county, at the point now known as East Walnut Hills, near Cincinnati. The Conklings were among the best as well as earliest settlers of Hamilton county.

William M. Conkling’s mother was a daughter of John Marsh, who settled in Hamilton county in 1794. The subject of this sketch received his early education in the schools of Cincinnati, under the instruction of John L. Tolbert, a prominent educator of that city. He was bred a farmer, working with his father until his twenty-fourth year, when he rented a farm from his father in Sycamore township. At the end of ten years, in 1849, by industry and frugality he had accumulated enough to enable him to buy a home. He purchased the farm upon which he now [1876] resides, in Sycamore township.

Mr. Conkling has always taken great interest in the affairs of his township, especially in its educational interests. For fifteen years he has been a Supervisor. He has been an active member of the Presbyterian Church for many years. Politically he is a Republican. He is held in high esteem in his locality, where he has lived the life of an honest, public-spirited citizen.

In 1839 Mr. Conkling married Elizabeth D. Glenn, daughter of Isaac Glenn, a prominent farmer of Hamilton county. Six children have been born of this union.

Van S. Seltzer was a Physician and Surgeon, born in Columbus, Ohio, August 31st 1834. His grandfather, George Seltzer, emigrated from Germany, and at an early day settled in Pennsylvania, where he engaged in mercantile business. He was the organizer of Johnstown, Lebanon county, in that State, and was widely recognized as an able man of business and useful citizen. His family consisted of three sons and two daughters; his oldest son, Samuel Z. Seltzer, M.D., left Pennsylvania in 1831 and settled in Columbus, Ohio, where he was engaged in the practice of medicine until his death, in 1852.

Van S. Seltzer’s mother, Mary (Tansnacht) Seltzer, of Johnstown, Pennsylvania, was the mother of thirteen children. He was the third son, and was educated preliminarily in the public schools of Columbus. In 1848 he entered the Capitol University, where he remained as a student during the ensuing three years. He then began the study of medicine under the instruction of his father, with whom he read until death carried off his preceptor, in 1852. Later, he entered the Starling College, and graduated from that institution in 1855.

Dr. Seltzer then commenced the practice of his profession where his father had labored for a period extending over twenty years, and developed substantial capital and an extensive and lucrative business. For three years, 1869-70-71, he held the position of Physician and Surgeon to the Franklin County Infirmary. Later he was Physician and Surgeon of the Ohio Asylum for the Deaf and Dumb. In politics, he was strongly attached to the Republican party. He was married, August 19th, 1856, to Minerva I. Smeltzer, of Zanesville, Ohio.