Much of early history of the Adventists, and early WT, Bible Students is obscure. The documents are rare. The groups associated with Russell for the most part were tiny and were not interested in leaving historical landmarks for us internet historians. They thought the time on earth was very brief. We can find more documents on the internet on one hour than most Bible Students/JWs could have found in the last 100 years. Russell's early associates like Conley and others, parted company, and went their separate ways. With the separations, the information got lost, just like geneological data gets lost with family separations. No coverup here, just ignorance of the facts.
Conley was a financial benefactor to Russell, was an early associate of Russell, perhaps Conley introduced Russell to Adventists or Adventist literature in the early 1870s. Russell as editor probably exercised more power than Conley as President. Conley had a business to attend to, was President because he contributed the most. He only was involved for a 1,2,3 years at the most and then left.