Roscoe Arbuckle a feature film. Roscoe Conkling Arbuckle was born on March 24, 1887, in Smith Center, Kansas, one of nine children of Mary E. "Mollie" Gordon (d. February 19, 1898) and William Goodrich Arbuckle. He weighed in excess of at birth and, as both parents had slim builds, his father believed the child was not his. Consequently, he named the baby after a politician (and notorious philanderer) whom he despised, Republican senator Roscoe Conkling of New York. The birth was traumatic for Mollie and resulted in chronic health problems that contributed to her death 12 years later. When Arbuckle was nearly
James C. Conkling for the years 1879 to 1880. In 1890, President Benjamin Harrison named Conkling the Postmaster of Springfield. He served the office for four years. Conkling married Mercie A. Levering on September 21, 1841. They had five children: Clinton Levering, James, Charles, Annie V., and Alice. Eldest son Clinton would be a delegate to the Illinois Constitutional Convention of 1920–21. Conkling attended the Second Presbyterian Church of Springfield and was a longtime elder there. He died on March 1, 1899, in Springfield, and was buried in Oak Ridge. James C. Conkling James Cook Conkling (October 13, 1816 – March 1, 1899)