Marshall-Pottawatomie County KS Archives Biographies.....Strong, James G. 1870 - ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/ks/ksfiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Joy Fisher sdgenweb@yahoo.com May 31, 2007, 12:20 am Author: Emma E. Forter (1917) JAMES G. STRONG. The great-grandfather of the subject of this sketch was William Strong, born on the eastern shore, Maryland, January 8, 1783; he moved to Jefferson county, Ohio, where Samuel S. Strong was born, November 3, 1807. The family then again removed to Liberty, Indiana, where, on April 12, 1832, the son, Samuel S. Strong, married Temperance Crist, a daughter of George W. Crist, who was born near Albany, New York, in 1770, of German parentage. In 1834 this young couple moved to Lebanon, Indiana, where the father of the subject, James G. Strong, Sr., was born on March 4, 1836. After receiving his primary education in the common schools, he attended the State University at Bloomington, Indiana, and then the Law School of Cincinnati, where he graduated in the class of 1859. He was married on April 25th of the same year to Rebecca M. Witt at Lebanon, Indiana, whose people had been pioneers from Kentucky and North Carolina. Her father, Michael Witt, was a brother of Mary Witt, the mother of Joaquin Miller, and her grandfather Wall was an own cousin of Daniel Boone. Their wedding trip was a wagon journey of two hundred miles in company with the large family of Samuel S. Strong to Livingston county, Illinois. James G. Strong, Sr., taught school and practiced law at Dwight, Illinois, and later engaged in the grain and banking-business. He was one of the incorporators of the Plymouth, Kankakee & Pacific railroad, on which nearly four hundred thousand dollars was expended, and was a director and its secretary and treasurer. He was also a large bond and stockholder in the Kankakee River Improvement Company. In 1870 he was elected to the Twenty-seventh General Assembly of Illinois, where he introduced the first bill ever presented to the Legislature of that state for the appointment of a board of railroad commissioners. In 1872 he was elected to the State Senate, serving as chairman on the printing committee and introducing bills which saved the state over one hundred and thirty thousand dollars. Business losses caused him to enter the government Indian service in South Dakota through the influence of Gen. John A. Logan, and three years were so spent at Yankon [sic] Agency. Locating at St. Marys, Kansas, in 1882, he again engaged in the grain and milling business and in 1891 moved to Blue Rapids, Kansas, and engaged first in the milling business and later entered into the practice of law with his son. He died at Blue Rapids, September 4, 1895; his wife survived him until August 4, 1914, and is buried beside him at Blue Rapids, Kansas. They have three living children: Emma Temperance, now the wife of Frank B. Chester, the owner of a seven hundred and twenty-six-acre farm four miles south of Valparaiso, Indiana; Ella May, now the wife of Z. T. Trumbo, of Pontiac, Illinois, where he is assistant superintendent and chief clerk of the Illinois State Reformatory, the second largest institution of the kind in this country; and James George, the subject. James G. Strong was born at Dwight, Livingston county, Illinois, on April 23, 1870. He received his common school education in the local schools of Dwight and Bloomington, Illinois, and St. Marys, Kansas; he then attended Baker University, took a correspondence school of law and studied under his father and was admitted to the bar in Marshall county, Kansas, and in 1895 entered into partnership with his father in the practice of law at Blue Rapids, Kansas, where he has attained success both as a lawyer and a business man. As a lawyer, Mr. Strong served his city as its attorney for fifteen years without losing it a case; was assistant attorney general for Marshall county two years and closed up and kept closed the "joints" which had been engaged in the sale of liquor. He was elected without opposition as county attorney in 1916, which position he now fills with credit to himself and satisfaction to the people. He stands high in his profession and has won his success by ability and work. As a business man, Mr. Strong has been unusually successful. Starting without means of any kind after the death of his father, when he was twenty-five, and receiving no gifts by inheritance or otherwise, he worked his way to success in the business world. He organized the Blue Rapids Telephone Company in 1894, became its president three years afterward, built it up to its position as one of the best equipped and conducted exchanges in the country and is still its president. In 1913 he organized the Marshall County Power and Light Company and began the rebuilding of the splendid water-power which had long been the pride of Blue Rapids, but which no one had been able to make either permanent or profitable. He was able to secure capital and gather around him able associates and, despite many obstacles and local prejudice is fast building a network of transmission lines from a magnificent hydro-electric plant to all adjoining cities, now furnishing electric current for light, heating and power to the cities of Blue Rapids, Marysville, Waterville and Irving, besides furnishing power to two large plaster mills. Over one hundred thousand dollars has been spent upon the proposition. Mr. Strong is the only resident stockholder and is at present a director and the secretary and manager. Aside from his work as a lawyer and business man Mr. Strong has found time to serve six years upon the board of education; he takes a leading part in the Commercial Club, the Chautauqua, the county fair and all matters pertaining to the business and educational life of the community. He has led in the work for good roads, was vice-president of his congressional district of the State Automobile Association and is president of the Blue Valley Highway and director of the Kansas White Way Highway. Mr. Strong has always been a loyal Republican and served fifteen years on the county committee; he was elected to the national convention of 1912 for Roosevelt, but did not leave the party; was in the state "harmony convention" in 1914 and a member of the committee which wrote the resolutions which were adopted and helped unite the party. He has assisted in many speaking campaigns and is an ardent admirer of the "old soldier," being generally their choice speaker on Decoration Day. On December 18, 1894, James G. Strong was united in marriage to Frances E. Coon, of Blue Rapids, and a daughter of Emir J. Coon, deceased, and the granddaughter of Judge .John V. Coon. The latter was one of the organizers of the city of Blue Rapids. He was born at Phelps, New York, March 30, 1822, where, in the year 1842, he was united in marriage to Charlotte M. Miller. Moving to Elyria, Ohio, after his graduation as a lawyer, he won prominence and success in his profession, and there his only son, Emir J. Coon, was born. After service in an Ohio regiment in the Civil War, the son united in marriage with Elizabeth Boynton, a member of the prominent Boynton family. In 1870 Judge Coon assisted in the organization of the town colony composed of well-to-do people from Genesee, New York, and Elyria, Ohio, who located at the "Rapids of the Blue River" and incorporated and platted the city of Blue Rapids. They built the splendid stone dam at the head of the rapids at a cost of thirty thousand dollars which still stands as a monument to the quality of their work. Judge Coon divided his time between Blue Rapids and Elyria until 1876, when, together with his son and their families, they took up their permanent residence in Blue Rapids, where he soon became the leading lawyer and was recognized as one of the ablest real estate lawyers in northern Kansas. He recognized the value of the gypsum deposits found near Blue Rapids and, with his son, built the first plaster mill, and thus began the industry which has made the town renowned for its high grade wall, molding and dental plasters. At the time of his death, January 3, 1895, he was mayor of the city and county attorney-elect. His widow was born in 1821 and is living today with the subject of this sketch, being the oldest resident in Marshall county. To James G. and Frances E. Strong have been born two children, George Eugene Strong, born November 30, 1895, who graduated from the Blue Rapids high school in 1913. He then attended the State University at Lawrence for three years and graduated from the University of Chicago on June 12, 1917, with the degree of Ph. B. He is now deputy county attorney for his father in the county attorney's office at Marysville, Kansas. Erma Elizabeth Strong was born, August 30, 1898, and will graduate from the Blue Rapids high school with the class of 1919. In a beautiful home, the life of this family is a most ideal one and, with the grandmother and great-grandmother, comprises four generations. Mr. and Mrs. Strong are members of the Episcopal church. Mr. Strong is a member of the Odd Fellows lodge at Blue Rapids; the Knights of Pythias at Frank, Kansas, and the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks at Manhattan, Kansas, as well as the Modern Woodman and the Sons of Veterans. Additional Comments: Extracted from: History of Marshall County, Kansas: its people, industries, and institutions by Emma E. Forter Indianapolis, Ind.: B.F. Bowen & Co. 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