Johnson County KS Archives Biographies.....Strongman, John 1851 - 
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Joy Fisher http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00001.html#0000031 October 21, 2008, 2:10 am

Author: Ed Blair (1915)

  John Strongman, a Johnson county pioneer and successful farmer of Gardner
township, is a native of the mother country. He was born in Cornwall, England,
in 1851, and is a son of Luke and Mary Ann (Grieve) Strongman. The father was an
English farmer and both he and his wife spent their lives in Cornwall, England.
John Strongman was reared on his father's farm and when a youth learned the
miller's trade. All the years throughout his boyhood, his aim and ambition was
to come to America, and just as soon as he reached his majority he proceeded to
realize the dream of his boyhood, and accordingly embarked for America on the
"Montreal," and after a voyage of thirteen days on the Atlantic, reached New
York. He immediately went to London. Ontario, where he remained until the
following September, and worked in a brick yard. In September, 1872, he came to
the States, locating in Luzerne county, Pennsylvania, and here worked at his
trade in a grist mill for a time. In 1873 he went to Wayne county, Pennsylvania,
and worked at odd jobs until 1876, when he came to Kansas. He reached Johnson
county with a working capital of six cents, and after remaining a few weeks in
Johnson county he went as far west as Wichita, but that country did not look as
good to him as Johnson county, so he returned to Johnson county with his six
cents still in his possession. He found work and in about six weeks was able to
send for his wife, whom he had left in Pennsylvania. He worked at whatever he
could find to do that winter, and the following spring got a team and a few
farming implements and rented a farm of 160 acres, in partnership with his
uncle. He met with a reasonable degree of success from the start and four years
later, or in 1881, he bought an eighty acre farm, which he still owns. This was
the beginning of his real success, and since that time he has been successfully
engaged in farming and stockraising. He has fed stock, including cattle, hogs
and horses, quite extensively and has prospered, and today is one of the
well-to-do farmers of the county. Mr. Strongman was united in marriage in 1872
to Miss Elizabeth Jane Pill, a daughter of Edward and Jane Pill, and a native of
Cornwall, England. Her parents never came to this country, but spent their lives
in Cornwall. England. Mr. and Mrs. Strongman have no children. He is a
Republican and he and his wife are members of the Baptist church.

Additional Comments:

Extracted from:

HISTORY OF Johnson County Kansas
BY
ED BLAIR

AUTHOR OF
Kansas Zephyrs, Sunflower Sittings and Other Poems and Sketches

IN ONE VOLUME

ILLUSTRATED
STANDARD PUBLISHING COMPANY
LAWRENCE, KANSAS
1915


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