Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 39, Number 77, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 31 May 1907 — EDWIN H. CONGER DIES. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

EDWIN H. CONGER DIES.

Former Minister to China Succumbs to Illness. Edwin Hurd Conger, former minister to China, died at his home, in Pasadena, Cal., Saturday. The family was

at the bedside when the end came. In a varied and [picturesque career] Mr. Conger, as an Illinoisan. shed honor on his State. As soldier, business man, statesman and diplomat he fulfilled his duties in a highly acceptable manner. He was

born at Galesburg on March 7, 1843, and received his education in old Lombard University, Later he attended the Albany Law School, where he was a student with President McKinley, and he was a youth when he steped from the classroom to shoulder a musket in the war for the Union. Enlisting in the One Hundred and Second Illinois as a private, he saw service In the same brigade with President Harrison, and susequently marched with Sherman to the sea. Before the end of the conflict he had been breveted major for gallant and meritorious service. When the war closed, Mr. Conger practiced law for a time at Galesburg, but in 1868 he went to Dexter, lowa, and there began farming and stockraising, and also entered into the banking business. Naturally he took an interest in politics, and successively was elected treasurer of the county, and then State Treasurer. In 1884 he was elected to Congress, and served three terms. In 1891 he was first appointed minister to Brazil, and was reappointed in 1897, and the following year he was transferred to China, and while there Mr. Conger performed notable service. He was in Peking during the siege following the terrible Boxer uprising, and after the capture of that city by the allies he conducted the negotiations on the part of the United States. Subsequently he was head of the commission that negotiated the new commercial treaty with China, which went into effect in 1902. Mr. Conger was appointed ambassador to Mexico in 1905, but his health failing, he resigned the post within a few months and went to live at Pasadena, where he was seized with, his fatal illness.

[image: E. H. Conger.]

E. H. CONGER.