Tuesday, November 10, 2009

Heagler, Ethel (Conger)

Ethel (Conger) Heagler

Ethel (Conger) Heagler, born on 12 Jan 1881 in either Bloomington, McLean county, IL or Towanda, McLean county, IL was another Conger researcher who published her work.

She wrote to Maxine Leonard on 18 May 1962 and told of attending a DAR National Conference in Washington, DC the previous year, at the age of 80. She wrote, "I went to the Rare Books Department of the Congressional Library to see the seven volumes of typed bound books left by Charles Conger of Minnesota. You have to almost swear your life away to get in. A guard sits at the door with a rope across the opening. I told him what I wanted and he said, 'What references do you have?' I said, 'I am here as a delegate to the DAR Conference,' and I gave him my membership card. That didn't mean anything. 'What else do you have?' I showed him my cards of the Pen Women of America, Farm Bureau and Home Bureau of McLean Co., Illinois. He then asked to see all my cards, and what did he take, but the credit card from the Chicago Motor Club! A young girl stood by me and said she had no reference with her, and they would not let her in.

"Then I went in and they brought me the seven books and sat me down in front of the desk and that lady never took her eyes off of me all afternoon."

Mrs. Heagler published her line in 1941, through the help of Charles Leslie Conger who had established her lineage.
(Source: The Conger Family of America, Vol. 1, p. 2a - Maxine Crowell Leonard)

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