By Jeff Richman
CONKLIN (or CONKLINE, CONKLING), EZRA (1756-1815). Corporal, Suffolk County Militia, 1st Regiment of Minutemen, Colonel Josiah Smith’s Regiment, Captain John Wickes’s Company; associator, Huntington, New York. According to Find A Grave, Ezra was born on November 1, 1756, in Huntington, Suffolk County, New York, to Ruth née Ketcham and Timothy Conklin Sr. He was the second oldest of five siblings; he had three brothers and one sister. On some official documents Ezra’s surname is spelled as Conkline or Conkling.
As per “A Brief Biography of Some of the Huntington Patriots” (2024), by Wendy Polhemus-Annibell, Head Librarian, Suffolk County Historical Society,
Ezra Conklin was “Signatory to the Association at Huntington, he served in Colonel Josiah Smith’s 1st Regiment of Minute Men of Suffolk County, as an enlisted man. He was eventually promoted to corporal. He was also listed in a payroll account of July 29th to August 31st, 1776, for Captain John Wickes’ 5th Company. He lived at or near the “Town Spotte” (intersection of Park Avenue and Sabbath Day Path.)
On May 8, 1775, 403 men, most of them Huntington residents (a few were from Islip), “shocked by the bloody Scene” that had occurred just weeks before at Lexington and Concord in Massachusetts, where patriot Minutemen and British regulars had engaged in a bloody armed struggle, put their signatures on Huntington’s Articles of Association. Only 37 Huntington residents, either Loyalists or those wanting to stay out of the fray, refused to sign. The Articles noted that the signers affirmed their “Love to our Country,” agreed “to whatever Measures may be recommended by the Continental Congress; or resolved upon by our Provincial Convention, for the Purpose of preserving our Constitution, and opposition to the Execution of the several arbitrary, and oppressive Acts of the British Parliament,” and prayed for “a Reconciliation between Great-Britain and America.” The actions of these associators were seen by both patriots and the British as a step towards rebellion. The fact that these men signed these Articles, placing themselves in danger of British retaliation, including imprisonment, seizure of their property, and exile from Long Island, is proof of their patriotic service.
New York in the Revolution as Colony and State, by James A. Roberts, Comptroller, published in 1898, at page 169, lists Ezra among the names of the enlisted men in the First Regiment of Minutemen under Colonel Josiah Smith. In his book, The Refugees of 1776 from Long Island to Connecticut (1913), Frederic Gregory Mather records Ezra’s promotion to the rank of corporal on or about July 1, 1776. Further, information from Sons of the American Revolution, indicates that he held the rank of corporal during the war. The Lineage Book of the Charter Members of the DAR, Volume 076, states that Ezra was present at the Battle of Long Island. The Lineage Book of the Charter Members of DAR, Volume 071, reports that Ezra’s older brother, Timothy Jr. (see), held the rank of lieutenant during the war, also served with Colonel Josiah Smith, and took part in the Battle of Long Island.
There was some uncertainty as to whether Ezra was a loyalist or a patriot. In the book, Huntington Town Records, Including Babylon, Long Island, N.Y., 1776-1873, published in 1889, Charles R. Street lists Ezra among 400 additional names who took the oath of loyalty before Governor Tryon in Suffolk County, Long Island in 1778. As explained in the article, “American Revolution,” posted on the town of Huntington’s website, residents often were forced to take an oath of allegiance to the Crown or risk losing everything they owned. Though an applicant on a submitted request to the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) suggested Ezra was a loyalist, this assertion was deemed invalid by the DAR. Furthermore, other records indicate that Ezra and fellow residents of Huntington were harassed and coerced by the British throughout the Revolutionary War. As Huntington Town Historian Robert Hughes wrote in “Huntington and the Articles of Association,” of the 403 men who signed the Articles of Association in 1775, “269 also signed the Oath of Loyalty to the Crown three years later.” Hughes explains that this number is less than that of the signers of the Articles because some who had signed the Articles may have died in the interim; others had fled Long Island, primarily moving to Connecticut, to avoid living under the British.
Incidents between Ezra and the British are documented in Old Times in Huntington: An Historical Address, published in 1876, by Hon. Henry C. Platt:
Ezra Conkling, who lived at the time, in the house, which is now a barn, on the premises of George C. Gould, in the eastern part of the village, and whose grandchildren and great-grandchildren are now living in Huntington, and many of whom I see here to day, was a great sufferer from the British soldiers, who stole most everything eatable off of his farm. In order to hide a fat calf for his own use, he placed it in his milk-room, where it was secreted and fed.
He had a tory neighbor, living below him, whose daughters used to flirt considerably with British officers, (girls used to flirt in those days) and they informed the officers where this calf was hidden. On the pretence of searching for a deserter, several British soldiers came to his house early one morning. Going up stairs, they threw two of the children of Mr. Conkling out of their bed, and cut the rope underneath the bedding, stating they had found a deserter down stairs in the milk room, and wanted some rope to tie him with. They marched off to camp, with the struggling prize, which met the fate of War.
On one occasion a British dragoon, riding upon his horse, by Ezra Conkling’s residence, when he was away from home, saw a goose wandering in the door yard by the roadside. It tempted his appetite. He took a fish hook, baited it with a kernel of corn, tied it to a long string, and without dismounting, threw it on the ground near the goose, and retained the end of the string in his hand. The goose was such a goose, as to swallow that kernel of corn, and with it, the hook. And as soon as he had swallowed it, the dragoon started his horse off for camp, on a full gallop; the goose, fast to the string, was jerked up in the air, and as a natural consequence flew along after the horse and rider.
After his Revolutionary War military service, Ezra married Sarah Platt on October 4, 1778, as noted on Find A Grave. Sarah was the twin sister of Mary Platt Conklin; Mary had married Timothy, Ezra’s older brother, in 1776. Ezra and Sarah had nine children. As per Find A Grave, their children were “Platt, Elizabeth (married Silas Titus Ketcham), Experience (married Ebenezer Prime), Erastus Harvey, Matilda (married Brewster Helme Wood), Letitia (married Nathaniel Woodhull Woolsey), Maria (married Gilbert Platt), Ezra, and Nathan Woodhull Conklin.”
According to the 1799 New York, U.S. Tax Assessment Rolls of Real Estate and Personal Estates, Ezra’s estate was valued at $2,155, a substantial sum for the time. The 1800 and 1810 United States federal censuses detail that Ezra and his family resided in Huntington, Suffolk, New York. According to Huntington Town Records, Including Babylon, Long Island, N.Y., 1776-1873, Ezra was elected as the assessor for Huntington each year from 1808 through 1814. As per the U.S., Revolutionary War Burial Index, Ezra passed away on February 17, 1815 and is buried in the Old Huntington Cemetery, Suffolk County. The Conklin brothers were probably very close as they served in the same regiment during the war, married sisters, and are buried in Huntington’s Old Burying Ground. Ezra’s ancient gravestone reads, “In memory of Mr. Ezra Conklin who departed this life Feb. 17th, 1815 – E 58 years 5 m. 17d’s.”