ROBERT KONKLE, Biography / Allegan County, Michigan 
 
MIGENWEB ARCHIVES NOTICE: These electronic pages may NOT be 
reproduced in any format for profit or presentation by any other organization or 
persons. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material, must obtain the 
written consent of the contributor, or the legal representative of the submitter, 
and contact the listed MIGenWeb archivist with proof of this consent. The 
submitter has given permission to the MIGenWeb Archives to store the file 
permanently for free access.  
 
******************************************************** 
File contributed for use by MIGenWeb Archives, Allegan Co. 
by Janet Wilkinson Schwartz (wilkinschw@aol.com) 
February 2003 
******************************************************** 
 
Portrait and Biographical Record of Kalamazoo, Allegan and Van Buren 
Counties, Michigan.  Chicago: Chapman Bros., 1892. 
 
ROBERT KONKLE.  Not only in Watson Township, but throughout Allegan 
County as well, this gentleman is known and esteemed.  His farm of eighty acres, 
which he purchased in 1866, is pleasantly located on section 2, and when it 
came into his possession was wholly unimproved, with the exception of thirty 
acres.  Now the entire place has been cleared, improved and cultivated.  Aside 
from general farming, Mr. KONKLE was for a long time one of the most 
prominent lumbermen in this section of country and has at various times been 
interested in six different mills.  He is both a good trainer and a splendid judge of 
horses, in which he has dealt extensively and has used as many as twenty teams 
in his lumbering operations. 
 
A native of Pennsylvania, Mr. KONKLE was born in Chester Hill Township, 
Luzerne County, September 13, 1822.  His father, ABRAM, who likewise was 
born in the Keystone State, was reared to farming operations.  He removed first 
to New York, and later to Michigan, where he bought a farm, in 1839, in Plainfield 
Township, Kent County.  The place consisted of eighty acres and its only 
improvements were a log house and a small barn.  Five years after buying the 
farm, ABRAM KONKLE sold it and with his sons engaged in milling on Mill Creek 
for eight years and also operated a farm of one hundred and sixty acres.  His 
death took place in Allegan County at the age of seventy-eight.  The paternal 
grandfather of our subject, GEORGE KONKLE, was a native of Germany and 
early emigrated to the United States, where he served in the War of 1812. 
 
The mother of our subject, whose maiden name was CATHERINE DRIESBACH, 
was a native of Pennsylvania and survived until 1866.  Her father, JOSEPH, who 
was likewise born in the Keystone State, was a farmer and lumberman, and for 
many years served as Justice of the Peace.  Our subject was the second in a 
family of eleven children, eight sons and three daughters, all of whom grew to 
mature years.  At the age of twelve years, he accompanied his parents to New 
York, where he received a common-school education.  From there he came to 
Michigan when nineteen and remained with his parents until he attained his 
majority.  When he started out in life for himself, he not only had no moneyed 
capital, but was $100 in debet, so that his present prosperity represents his 
unaided and arduous exertions. 
 
For about six years, Mr. KONKLE was engaged in milling and lumbering with his 
father and brother on Mill Creek.  In 1851, he bought a farm of one hundred and 
sixty acres, located in Plainfield Township, Kent County, and cultivated it until 
1862, when he sold and bought another farm of the same size, in the same 
township, and located on Rogue River.  In 1864, he made a trip to California, via 
New York City and the Isthmus of Panama to San Francisco, and returned 
through Salt Lake City with a drove of horses, the homeward journey occupying 
four and one-half months.   
 
In 1845, Mr. KONKLE was married in Grand Rapids to Miss ELIZA TUFFS, who 
was born in Franklin, Ohio, February 15, 1824, and is the daughter of WILLIAM 
and PHILINDA (OLMSTEAD) TUFFS, natives of New York and Canada, who 
located in Saginaw County, this State, in 1831.  They spent their last days in 
Kent County, where the father died when seventy-four, and the mother at the age 
of seventy-five.  Mr. and Mrs. KONKLE became the parents of eight children, 
namely: SOPHRONIA, who died at the age of twenty-eight, leaving four children; 
ABRAM W., who is in the milling and lumbering business in Mason County, this 
State; WALLACE R., a resident of Muskegon; SIDNEY J., also residing in 
Muskegon; ELAGAN E., wife of STEPHEN CARVER, a farmer of Hopkins 
Township; MYRTLE A., deceased; HALLIE D., the wife of VERNER GOUCHER; 
and CATHERINE E., who died when two months old. 
 
Politically, Mr. KONKLE is a Democrat, and served as Supervisor in 1879-80 and 
in 1890-91.  He was Highway Commissioner and Pathmaster in Kent County and 
also served in the last-named capacity in Watson Township.  In all public 
measures, he maintains the deepest interest and with his family stands high in 
the esteem of the community.