John Strong Sr.

John Strong Sr. (November 26, 1798 – February 23, 1881) was an English–American farmer and politician who served one term in the Michigan House of Representatives, and was an early settler of Greenfield Township, Michigan.

John Strong
Member of the Michigan House of Representatives
from the Wayne County district
In office
November 2, 1835 – January 1, 1837
Personal details
Born(1798 -11-26)November 26, 1798
Wroxton, Oxfordshire, England
DiedFebruary 23, 1881(1881-02-23) (aged 82)
Greenfield Township, Michigan
Political partyDemocratic

Biography

John Strong was born on November 26, 1798,[1] in Wroxton, Oxfordshire, England.[2] He studied for the ministry, but did not find it to his liking. After his father's death, he emigrated to the United States,[1] arriving in the early 1820s, likely in 1825. He settled in Greenfield Township, Michigan, by 1826, after a year spent living near Chatham, Ontario.[3] He was a farmer,[4] and as one of the few educated men in the area, he assisted the Native American and French residents with business and legal matters, and he also sold many small tracts of land to incoming German colonists.[1]

Strong was a Democrat,[1] and was elected to the Michigan House of Representatives in the first election following adoption of the state constitution in 1835, and served through 1836.[4] He was supervisor of Greenfield Township in 1836 and 1836.[5]

Strong died in Greenfield Township on February 23, 1881,[1][6]

Family

In 1827,[7] Strong married Isabella Campbell, who was born in Scotland on January 25, 1810. They had six children: John Jr., Ann, George, Isabella, Elizabeth, and Sarah. Isabella Strong died on October 29, 1840.[1]

John Strong Jr. was elected to both the state house and senate,[4] and also served as lieutenant governor of Michigan. Elizabeth's son John S. Haggerty served as Michigan Secretary of State.[7]

Notes
  1. Moore 1915, p. 742.
  2. Moore 1915, p. 742, gives Strong's birthplace as "Roxton, England". There is a Roxton, Bedfordshire, and a Wroxton, Oxfordshire, and Burton, Stocking & Miller 1922, p. 1159, specifies that he was born in Oxfordshire.
  3. The date of his arrival varies by source. Chapman Brothers 1883, p. 222, and Detroit Free Press 1881, p. 1, give 1820 and the latter adds that he spent a year in Canada. Bingham 1888, p. 619, says he arrived in Michigan in 1822. Burton, Stocking & Miller 1922, p. 1159, says he arrived in the United States in 1825 and in Greenfield Township in 1826; this latter date is also given in Farmer 1890, p. 1445. Passenger lists of the Silas Richards show a John Strong born in 1798 traveling from England to New York in 1825 (FamilySearch 2014).
  4. Bingham 1888, p. 619.
  5. Farmer 1890, p. 1293.
  6. Detroit Free Press 1881, p. 1.
  7. SI. U. Collins 1914, p. 40.

References
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