Frank Morton Conkey has for more than a quarter of a century been identified with the town of Homer in his profession as a dentist. He is one of the most progressive men in his calling in the county, and began his work with splendid equipment and has always kept up with every advance and improvement in the profession.
Doctor Conkey was born at Homer, Illinois, May 3, 1868. He is a son of William Alexander and Sarah Virginia (Sadler) Conkey, his father a native of Pelham, Massachusetts, and his mother of Wheeling, West Virginia. The Sadler family were early settlers in Champaign County and Sarah Virginia came with her family when about twelve years of age, and rode into the county on horseback. William A. Conkey was graduated from the Louisville Medical College at Louisville, Kentucky, in 1856. In 1840 his family had located at Cayuga, Indiana, when he was ten years of age, and he lived in that vicinity until about twenty-two or twenty-five, when he removed to the district east of Champaign County on Salt Fork River, where a town was named for him Conkeytown. From there he removed to the old town of Homer, lived there about ten years and when the Wabash Railroad was built, causing a change in the location and the founding of the new town of Homer, he bought farming land a mile and a quarter west of the village and spent the rest of his days in the quiet vocation of agriculture. His death occurred December 2, 1908, and his wife passed away March 4, 1906. They were the parents of ten children: Aubert J., a retired farmer at Homer; the second, third and fourth children died in infancy; Lucy, wife of M. J. Spencer, now living retired at Homer; Bruce T., who died January 5, 1915; Carl A., a hardware merchant at Homer; Emma, wife of E. P. Babb, of Champaign; Frank M., of Homer; and Fred B., of Howe, Indiana.
Frank M. Conkey grew up in his father’s home at Homer, graduated from the high school there and spent one year in the University of Illinois. For two years he worked and studied in a dentist’s office at Crawfordsville, Indiana, and then spent two years in a dental school, one year at Indianapolis and in March, 1891, graduated from a dental college at Baltimore, Maryland. He at once returned to his old home town and has been steadily practicing here ever since.
Doctor Conkey married Laura V. Shepherd, who was also born in Homer, daughter of Parker E. and Lucinda (Thompson) Shepherd. Her father was born in Ohio and her mother at Homer, and both are now deceased. Her father was a farmer. Mrs. Conkey was the oldest of four children, the other three being: Bertha J., wife of J. M. Cooley; John A., who lives at New Orleans; and Ralph W., a resident of Yakima, Washington.
Dr. and Mrs. Conkey have one son, William Harold, who was born November 27, 1900. Doctor Conkey is a Republican in politics, a member of the Masonic Order and he and his wife belong to the Presbyterian Church.