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
Alfred Conkling (also known as Mrs. Steele; born 27 January 1814; died 1890) became an accomplished author, with works such as "The American Gentleman's Guide To Politeness and Fashion", "Memoirs of the Mother and Wife of Washington" (Auburn, N. Y., 1851-1853), "Isabel; or, Trials of the Heart" and a translation of Florian's "History of the Moors of Spain". Roscoe Conkling studied law and became a powerful United States Senator and Republican political boss from New York. Conkling's grandson Alfred Conkling Coxe, Sr. also served as U.S. district court judge in the Northern District of New York, and later a judge on the