Branch County MI Archives Biographies.....Strong, Myron W. 
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Burt Fuller burtf@msn.com April 22, 2005, 12:48 pm

Author: 1888 Portrait & Bio Album

MYRON W. STRONG is a fine representative of the sturdy farming element to which
Michigan is so deeply indebted for her prosperity and the advanced position that
she holds among the powerful States of the Union. He is a native of Andover,
Allegany Co., N.Y., born Sept. 30, 1829. His father, Calvin Strong, was born in
the town of Wells, Washington Co., N.Y., in 1797, and his grandfather, Luther
Strong, was, it is supposed, a native of New England. He was a natural mechanic,
and early became a skillful carpenter and joiner, and for a time was engaged at
that trade in Washington County. He then turned his attention to farming, buying
a farm in Grand Isle County, on the beautiful Isle of Mott, in Lake Champlain.
In 1814 he returned to Washington County, N.Y., and resided there until 1816,
when, accompanied by his wife and children, he started with ox and horse teams
to make the slow and tedious journey across the State of New York, much of the
way lying through dense forests, to Allegany County, where he proposed to
establish a new home. He bought a mill site in the town of Andover, and there
built a saw and grist mill, which he operated for a few years, and then
disposing of it moved to Potter County, Pa., where he bought a water power and
erected a saw and grist mill in the town of Ulala. He subsequently sold the
mill, and after a time bought a farm in the town of Hebron, where he spent his
last years. The maiden name of his wife was Abigail Woodruff, and she was, it is
thought, born in Connecticut. Her father, Joseph Woodruff, moved from Washington
County, N.Y., to Allegany County, in 1816, becoming a pioneer of Andover, where
he spent his last yers. The grandmother of our subject came to Michigan after
her husband's death, and passed her last years in Kinderhook, dying, however, in
the home of her son George, in Ohio, in 1873, in the month of September.

The father of our subject was about twenty years of age when his parents moved
to Allegany County, and he there met and married Miss Stephana Smith, who was
born in Granville, Washington Co., N.Y., and was a daughter of Stephen and Rhoda
(Woodruff) Smith. They resided in Allegany County until 1838, when they packed
up such of their belongings as they wished to carry, and with their six children
started for Michigan, going to Buffalo with a team, there embarking on the
waters of Lake Erie for Toledo, whence they proceeded to Tecumseh on the
primitive railway, with its cars drawn by horses and its wooden rails, which
were covered with strap iron, as far as Palmyra. At Tecumseh Mr. Strong hired a
team to convey his family and household goods to Branch County, where on his
visit here in the previous spring he had rented a farm near Coldwater. The
family lived there for seven years, and then the father bought a tract of land
on section 5, Kinderhook Township. It was timber land at the time, and he built
a frame house and commenced to clear a farm. In 1865 he sold his property here,
and then lived successively in Quincy, Coldwater and Girard, spending his last
years with our subject, and dying July 30, 1886, at an advanced age. He was a
good man, and his name will long be honored and cherished as belonging to a
worthy pioneer of Branch County, and no history of the township of Kinderhook
would be complete wherein he is not mentioned. His beloved wife, who for more
than half a century was his faithful and devoted companion, still lives to bless
her children with her presence, making her home with her daughter, Mrs. Greer,
in Kinderhook Township.

A few days after his arrival in Branch County, with his parents, our subject
celebrated the ninth anniversary of his birth. He has a clear recollection of
the journey hither, and of the life that they subsequently led amid the pioneer
surroundings of this then newly settled country, wherein deer, wild turkeys and
other game were abundant, and furnished a grateful addition to the family
larder. He was an attendant of one of the first schools established in this
vicinity, which was conducted in the primitive log school-house of the times,
heated by a fire in a rude fireplace, with slabs in which holes were bored and
legs inserted for seats, with no desks, but a board fastened to the wall for the
scholars to write upon. He continued to reside with his parents until he had
grown to manhood, and when twenty-one years of age commenced life for himself,
working by the month for about six years. Then, by his industry and prudence, he
had saved enough money to buy eighty acres of land of his father, comprising the
eastern one-half of the north quarter of section 6, Kinderhook Township. It was
heavily timbered, and he worked on it until 1864, when he sold it and bought
where he now resides, on section 19, the eastern one-half of the northwest
quarter. This was covered with trees of many centuries' growth at the time that
he bought it, and in 1866 he made the first improvement on the place by clearing
eleven acres. He now has the greater part of it cleared and in an admirable
state of cultivation, and has erected a substantial and commodious set of frame
buildings.

Mr. Strong was married, on the 23d of October, 1866, to Miss Annis Purdy,
daughter of Azem Purdy. She was born in California Township, Feb. 28, 1843, and
her union with our subject has been blessed by the birth of two children --
Freddie (deceased) and Nellie A. The family occupy a prominent position in
social and religious circles in this township, and by their frank and genial
manners, and the generous hospitalities of a pleasant and happy home, they have
endeared themselves to a large number of friends. In a quiet and unostentatious
manner they assist in the good work of the Free-Will Baptist Church, of this
place, of which they are valued members. Mr. Strong is a man whose ability is
unquestioned, and his keen resolute, uncompromising nature holds him to the
highest levels of life. In In his political views he has ever been a steadfast
ally of the Republican party, to which he has belonged since its organization,
and he cast his first Presidential vote for Gen. Fremont.

We are herewith pleased to append a brief sketch of Mrs. Stong's parents, who
were among the early pioneers of Branch County, and have ever since been
numbered among its most sterling residents. Her father was of New England
parentage and ancestry, but he was himself born in Canada, in the Province of
Quebec, the date of his birth being Sept. 15, 1811. His father, Joseph Purdy,
was born and reared in New England, and was there married to Sally Smith,
likewise a native of that part of the country. He moved from there to Canada and
engaged in farming until 1814, when, as he was in full sympathy with his
fellow-countrymen, who were then at war with Great Britian, he watched his
opportunity and escaped from the British Dominion to this side of the border,
thus at the expense of his property proving his patriotism and loyalty to the
land of his birth. He located in Vermont for a year, and from there removed to
Ohio, in 1816, and became one of the first settlers of Seneca County. The land
in that section of the country had never been surveyed, and it was still
inhabited by Indians. In February, 1835, Mr. Purdy made still another move, and
we find him in the Territory of Michigan, where he took up his abode in what is
now California Township, and was one of the pioneer settlers of that place, and
made his home there with his children until his death. His wife died at the home
of her daughter, in Algansee Township, this county.

Mrs. Strong's father was but five years old when his parents moved to Ohio, and
there being only a few white settlers in the part of the State in which they
located, Indian children were his playmates. He was never separated from his
parents until their death. Soon after coming to California Township he exchanged
the eighty acres of land which he had entered from the Government, in Hillsdale
County, for a tract of the same size in California Township. He located there
and improved a farm, on which he lived for seven or eight years, and then traded
that farm for another in Kinderhook. He is at present living retired in
Kinderhook, where he and his wife are enjoying the competence that their united
labors have secured to them. The maiden name of his worthy wife was Harriet
Holcomb, and they are both held in high estimation for the sound integrity that
has characterized all their acts throughout these many years that their lives
have been prolonged.

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