Milo J. Strong Biography


	This biography is from "Memorial and biographical record; an illustrated
 	compendium of biography, containing a compendium of local biography,
	including biographical sketches of prominent old settlers and 
	representative citizens of South Dakota..." Published by G. A. Ogle & 
	Co., Chicago, 1899. Pages 978-981

	Scan, OCR and editing by Maurice Krueger,mkrueger@iw.net, 1998. 

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MILO J. STRONG. Among the sturdy, energetic and successful farmers of 
Ravenna township, Sanborn county, who thoroughly understand the 
vocation which they follow, and consequently are enabled to carry on 
that calling with profit to themselves, is the subject of this sketch. 
He was born in Vermont, in 1837, and is a son of Ira P. and Catherine 
(McDonald) Strong, who were born and reared in the same state, but when 
our subject was four years old removed to Michigan and two years later 
to Wisconsin, where they located on a farm. His grandfather McDonald 
and his seven sons were among the troops known as the Green Mountain 
Boys in the war of 1812. On the paternal side our subject's ancestors 
were driven from England on account of religious belief and first 
settled in the north of Ireland, but soon afterward went to Scotland. 
In 1692 they were again forced to seek another home and this time came 
to the new world, locating in Vermont, which they supposed to be French 
territory. 

Our subject was reared on the home farm in Wisconsin and his 
educational advantages were limited to three months attendance at a 
country school. As his mother died when he was only nine years old, the 
family was soon broken up and from that time until reaching manhood he 
lived among strangers and earned his own livelihood by working as a 
farm hand. In 1862 he enlisted in Company A, Thirty-first Wisconsin 
Volunteer Infantry, and was first sent to Cairo, Illinois, afterward to 
Kentucky and Tennessee. He marched all over those states, was in the 
Vicksburg campaign, and later joined General Sherman in his engagements 
around Atlanta and in his celebrated march to the sea. Subsequently, 
during the Carolina campaign he was in two hard fought battles, and 
participated in the grand review at Washington, D. C. 

In 1860, Mr. Strong was united in marriage with Miss Sarah A. Thomas, a 
native of Missouri. As her father was a strong anti-slavery man, he 
moved north in 1850, but was the only one of his family to uphold the 
Union cause during the Civil war, having four brothers in the 
Confederate army. His five sons, however, wore the blue and fought 
gallantly for the old flag, which now floats so proudly above a united 
nation. Mrs. Strong was given a good education, and successfully 
engaged in teaching school for a time. Our subject and his wife have a 
family of twelve children, some of whom are now grown and engaged in 
teaching and others in farming. 

Coming to Sanborn county, South Dakota, in 1882, Mr. Strong located on 
section 25, Ravenna township, and spent the first winter here in a sod 
house. He brought with him three horses, two cows, his household goods 
and a very little other property. From his home at that time there was 
but one house in sight on the broad prairie, and the family underwent 
all the hardships common to the early settlers. At one time he and his 
neighbors fought a prairie fire continuously for twenty-five hours, and 
in 1883 a cyclone passed within sixty rods of his house, doing 
considerable damage to his corn crop. Of his one hundred and sixty 
acres of land, one-half is under cultivation, the remainder in pasture, 
and he also has five acres of forest trees. However, he operates four 
hundred and eighty acres, and in 1898 harvested one thousand nine 
hundred bushels of wheat, two thousand five hundred bushels of corn, 
seven hundred bushels of oats, and one hundred bushels of potatoes. In 
connection with his farming, he is also interested in the creamery 
business and in two warehouses, buying grain. 

Mr. Strong's first wife died in 1892, and three years later he married 
Miss Febby Divert, a successful school teacher, whose parents were 
natives of Ohio. The Republican party always finds in our subject a 
stanch supporter of its principles, and he served as a delegate to the 
state convention of his party in 1896. He has held several township 
offices, and as a public-spirited and progressive citizen he never 
withholds his aid from any enterprise for the public good. Socially he 
is a man of prominence and is a member of the Grand Army of the 
Republic, the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, the Masonic fraternity 
and Eastern Star. A portrait of Mr. Strong will be found on another 
page.