Philip Strong continued

From: Cayuga County Historian
Date: July 23, 2008 7:27:55 AM PDT
To: "D. Michael Strong"
Subject: Re: Strong search

Mike:
I found an abstract of Philip Strong's will as follows:
Philip Strong of Scipio
Dated Nov 30, 1812
Probated Jan 18, 1813
Mentions: sons: Joseph, Philip, Daniel Reed, John
wife: Reliance
daughter: Phebe
Executors: Abraham Dunning of Scipio
Alanson Tracy of "
Glen Cuyler of "
Witnesses: Lovice Reed
John Toll
Norman Stevens


Up to this point, everything seemed to point to Philip as a likely connection for Reuben. I would have expected him to be named in the will if that were the case but, unfortunately, there is no mention in the probate abstract.
Joseph was from Philip's first wife, Phebe, who would have been the primary candidate for Reuben due to birth dates.
John B. is from his second wife, Patience, and Philip and Daniel Reed are from the third, Reliance.
These are also the only children mentioned in Dwight's History of the Strong Family. From the 1810 Scipio census, there were two males under 10 which would have been Philip and Daniel. There was one male 10-15, which would have been John. There was one 16-25, which could have been Joseph and we had hoped maybe Reuben.
There is one female under 10 which is not accounted for, 3 that are 10-15 also not accounted for unless one is Phebe who would have been 15 or 16 and is mentioned in the Probate, but the others are not accounted for; one who is 16-25, either Phebe or we had hoped Mary; and 1 26-45, Reliance, Philip's third wife.
I have not looked for Joseph in the census but it is worth a look if he is separate from the family. He moves on to Chautauqua Co and was married in 1809 so may be out of the family, leaving Reuben still in the running. It's not clear though why he wouldn't be in the will unless he's related to another in the family. The search goes on.

Philip Strong

From Jeff Hayward (ggg grandson of Anna Strong, Reuben's first born), July 10,2008

The fact that it seems less likely that Benajah Strong (the Lansing area Strongs) is our connection, sent me back to my notes. The last group that I was working on connecting to was Asher Strong. I had found a note that he and three of his sons moved through central NY and I had come across traces of them in Onondaga and Cayuga Counties. Ancestory.com now has much more on this family than before and it appears that it does not match up. They are fairly well documented and there is not a lot of possibilities for our Rueben. Seems like it is back to square one.
In starting over, it always seems best to start with what is known and work backwards. We know that John Abbot is in the Cayuta/Newfield/Spencer area in 1810 from the census listing and that he just recently arrived there via the pension papers. But Anna was born in 1810. It doesn’t make too much sense that they just move and Rueben and Mary meet, marry and have a child there that quickly. That puts us back in Scipio just before then; John and family spent 4 years there. Using census listings, there were a handful of Strongs in Scipio in 1810 and only 3 there in 1800. You are going to like this even more – one of the Strongs is Philip Strong. After digging a bit, it is apparent that these all are related from 3 brothers that came to NY around 1800 – Philip, Ezra, and Epaphronditus. This family can easily be traced back through their father Philip (b. 9 Feb 1735 in Hebron, CT to Ezra to Jedediah Jr to Jedediah to the Elder John Strong). Wasn’t that one of the possibilities from the DNA testing?
It does get better. Philip was married three times and I don’t think there is a good listing for his family. (The kids are born in the right period for our Rueben.) This Philip died on 20 Feb 1812 and is buried there in Cornwell Cemetery. The 1810 census is also interesting – it shows 2 children under 10, 1 10-15, 1 16 to 25 and Philip (over 45) and females 1 under 10, 3 - 10 to 15, 1 16-26 and 1 26 to 45 (I think this was the third wife (younger). None of the documentation shows him with this many kids. It is also possible that Rueben and Mary are with him. (We know that they are not with John Abbot and there is no listing individually for Rueben. (this is just a possibility). By 1820 the only one left there in Scipio is Epaphronditus. All of the other Strong are gone (Philip had a son named Philip that died in Scipio in 1808, Ezra became a Doctor and moved to Rochester, NY but is buried back in Cornwall Cemetery).
The parents of the three Scipio Strongs is Philip and Rhoda Payne. They ended up in Warren (Litchfield) Connecticut where most of the other siblings stayed.
If this does indeed match your DNA testing, it does have possibilities. At least it is a place to start… (I still do not see any links in PA for the Abbots where they were supposed to be.)

Churchill/Williams

We returned to Rhode Island after our week in Tompkins County and was reminded of the Strong connections. Reuben's grandson, Philip, my g grandfather, moved with his family to Ontario Canada where he grew up and met Mary Amelia Churchill, whom he married. Mary Amelia's father had also moved to the area through New York and had served in the National Guard. His father was Pardon Churchill who was born in Mansfield, Mass., or near there. In the year 1816 he made a journey into the forest lands of the Susquehanna County, Pa., purchased a tract of woodland, made a small clearing, and built a house. Returning home, he made preparations for removal and in the winter of 1817-18, having constructed a cloth-covered house or tent upon an ox-sled, and packing their supplies and necessary furnishings, and accompanied by his young wife and infant son, Asa, with John and Bathsheba Williams, his wife's mother [believe it should be brother, John Jay Williams] and sister, he set out for the new home. They were fourteen days on the journey to the wilderness, in the town of Herrick, where his farm was located. He died about 1825, leaving a widow and one son. He married in Scituate, R.I, ABIGAIL WILLIAMS, daughter of Squire and Anna Williams, the father being a descendant of Roger Williams, the pioneer settler of Providence, R.I. Squire Williams was in the fifth generation from Roger, and was born in Scituate, R.I., May 20, 1753, son of Benoni and Abigail (Smith) Williams. Abigail remarried after Pardon's death and moved to Leon, Cattaraugus Co, NY, not far from Ontario.

Tompkins County - Day 6

Friday, July 4, 2008

It is the 4th of July and all the government buildings are closed so the research has been completed for this trip. We spent the day going to Treman State Park and visiting other parts of the Ithaca area. The fireworks display were on the 2nd of July instead of the 4th and we learned today, as we expected, the fireworks had set off a number of fires on the Ithaca College campus. It was windy during the fireworks and we could see some of the burning fragments drifting towards parts of the campus. There had been lots of fire trucks and police traveling about with sirens blaring and lights flashing.
The gorges of Tompkins are up to their claims "Tompkins is Gorges". We had a 2 1/2 mile hike up the clifts of Treman State Park and through the wooded areas. There were several water falls and the park was full of campers. There were swimming pools at the base of some of the falls where people could swim. Our grandkids took advantage of the opportunity.
Tomorrow we pack up and drive back to Rhode Island.

Tompkins County - Day 5

Thursday, 3 July 2008


We traveled to Danby in the morning and stopped at the Court House there for directions. Danby is tiny and there were only two women working in a rather worn down building. They were very helpful and friendly and gave us copies of maps of Danby including the 1853, 1866, water shed and current maps. Wid. Strong is on the 1853 map and a Hayward in her spot on the 1866 map. The ladies gave us directions on how to get to these spots and we wound our way down a single lane road, through the forest, up and down hills, onto a gravel road and then a dirt road back to a paved road and finally to a dirt road that was an old road that had been closed with the onset of the railroad. The property is just off this road and is now re-forested. We went up a driveway and found a gentleman that turned out to be a professor at Cornell who had received his PhD at the University of Washington in Seattle, where I am still faculty. He had built a home on this ground near a small pond, surrounded by forest and told us that it had obviously been farmland before. He had found an old well and remnants of a silo at the corner of where his driveway started. There was also barbed wire fencing out in the woods. We went back down his driveway and onto an old grassy road in our son's SUV and drove up a few hundred yards into the forest where we found old rusted parts to cars and an old bed spring in an indentation in the earth that appeared to have been the site of a farmhouse. It is impossible to know if this was the right place but it is certainly within a few hundred yards if it is not. It is interesting to picture this family living here and where my g grandfather Philip was born. The picture is taken in approximately what would have been their land. In 1850 Jasper, Mary and Reuben's son and my gg grandfather, is listed as head of the household at the age of 21. Mary is with him along with Reuben Jr who was 18. The land was sold in 1853 to Electa Hayward and they move shortly thereafter to Elgin, Ontario, Canada.
We drove on to the town of Owego on the Susquehanna River where the settlers came at the beginning of 19th century. This is the county seat for Tioga County of which Spencer, Danby and Newfield once belonged prior to division of the area into new counties and townships. We thought we might find records of John Abbott here since he was in the 1810 Spencer census of Tioga. Unfortunately, we were unable to find any records.
We drove back to Ithaca and spent a couple of hours in the Library where there were a number of old books on New York, including Revolutionary War records. It was here that we found evidence for John Abbot. Note the spelling of his last name varies from record to record which has complicated the search. It is spelled with either Abbot or Abbott. From various documents we have found: from the 1835 Pensioners Book; Revolutionary war veteran. John Abbot; rank: Pvt; annual allowance: $23.33; received: $58.32; Description of Service: NY MIlitia; When placed on pension role: 2 Aug 1833; Commencement of pension: 4 Mar, 1831; age: 71. From the New Jersey Pensioner rolls: pension commenced 1831, died 26 Jul 1840.
John and Anna Abbott deeded to School District No. 8 in the town of Newfield, Tompkins Co, NY, for the sum of $10, Northwest corner of twenty acres of land, corner of the highway.
From Jeff Hayward: John Abbott, S11929, NJ line, 28 May 1833 Tompkins Cty NY aged 70 on 29 Mar
last, b 1763 in Oxford in Sussex Cty NJ, enl at Oxford NJ thence to
Northumberland Cty PA about 4 yrs after the war thence to Luzerne Cty PA 8
yrs later thence to Cayuga Cty NY 4 yrs later thence to Newfield NY 4 yrs
later, sol served as a sub for John Williams.
We are still not certain that John and Anna are Mary's parents since I had noted in the past that he was an uncle and William was her father. At least we now have the New Jersey connection.
At least we've added a few more pieces to the puzzle and have a PA route of entry. If only we could now trace Reuben.

Tompkins County - Day 4

Wednesday, 2 July 2008


Wednesday was an interesting day. It seems each day we find at least one tidbit to fill in the picture of the Strong families of Tompkins county. We talked to the Newfield historian, Alan Chafee, who is a wealth of information. He knew both Reuben Strong and John Abbott. He has been doing the history of this area for a long time and seems to know the whole area. He had talked to another researcher who was working on a doctor and had a list of names of people who had owed the doctor money. Reuben's name was on the list. He also knew that Reuben had been hired to repair the Kellog School House in 1830. John Abbot(t) was know as a Revolutionary War veteran and he and his wife Anna had sold their property to the School district in 1840. We were able to find the deed in the court house which confirmed the sale and the price of 10 dollars and the wife's name of Anna, who made her mark with an X . This fits nicely with Reuben and Mary's first daughter who is named Anna. The 1840 census shows John as head of household and, from the numbers and ages, it appears that Mary and her kids are living with them.We will need to do some work on John as to where he served in the War but it is likely they came from Connecticut, perhaps via New Jersey since both Mary and her son Reuben were born there according to the census. Alan also knew where both John and Reuben lived and gave us directions to the site. We drove through the little town of Newfield, saw the covered bridge that had been built in 1853 and the little creek that runs through the town ( there is a Newfield website with a picture of the covered bridge). The property where they lived is about a mile and a half out of town and John's house was at the corner of a four way intersection at the foot of a hill. The area is quite hilly and active farming continues on today with tractors and animals in the fields. Their is a new house on John's property and the School House has been moved into town and a plaque is posted in front about the move.
We spent a couple more hours at the Cornell Library reviewing the Helen Finch papers. She was a genealogist who had done a lot of research on the Benejah Strong family that settled in Lansing. This seemed like a good lead since Alan said that about 50% of the people who settled in Newfield had come from Lansing. Unfortunately, there was no evidence of Reuben despite the many names identified and several families that resulted from Benejah's move. He was quite prominent in Lansing and we did learn that he had come into the area by way of the Susquehanna river to the south and that this whole area was assigned for Revolutionary war land grants. Each soldier appears to have received 600 acres. It is still possible that Reuben was related to this family as a grandson perhaps. There is a Strong cemetery where Benejah and sons are buried but Reuben is not there.
Thursday will include a trip to Danby and Owego, the county seat of Tioga County. Friday, the 4th, we will meet with Alan and he is going to show us where the Foster and Messenger families are buried in Danby. Apparently it is hard to find. He is genuinly interested in our research since it adds to his knowledge of the area. All in all a successful day. The grandkids agree, having spent the entire afternoon at the swimming pool. We also watched a big fireworks display at the local Ithaca College campus and were impressed at the number of fire trucks called into duty as a result.

Tompkins County - Day 3

Tuesday, 1 July 2008

Today we visited Cornell University and looked through some archive material. No luck with the deaths and marriages stored on 8 x 11 cards catalogued by publications in local papers primarily. We did order two boxes of papers that indexed both Abbott and Strong and we will review those tomorrow when they are delivered.
We then went to the Tompkins County History Center and looked through books and history of the county. One interesting finding was a map of the county from 1853. It lists families and locations on the map. We found Wid. Strong in the Danby area and will try to locate the property when we drive down there in the next couple of days. We also returned to the County Clerk's office to search for David Foster who is noted on the deed from Mary Strong to Electa Hayward in 1853. We found a title transfer in 1835 along with the document of Mary's sale. Of interest is the location of the Foster family in Danby. Milton Bostwick Foster married Rosanna Strong in 1840 and Moses Stilson Foster married Susan Strong in 1845. The Elder Foster, John, married Lorinda Treadwell in Malahide, Elgin Ontario in 1815 and it is these families along with Jasper, Martha, Mary and Reuben Jr that move to Ontario.
We also learned from the local historian, that the land in Danby was quite poor, even worse than Newfield and it was difficult to make a living. It may be that Mary received the land that she sold from the Fosters when they moved to Canada and then followed them with Jasper and family. They all also seem to move on to Michigan later since many are buried there.
No luck on Reuben's parents and I am not holding out a lot of hope for that. There are a lot of Strongs in the area and it is likely that there are some brothers but it is difficult to make the connections. We hope to talk to a couple more historians this week. The records here are not good and it is complicated by the amalgamation of towns and counties during this time. Spencer, Cayuta and Newfield all overlap and merge. Many records were lost or burned. We will continue the search.

Tompkins County - Day 2

Monday 30 June 2008


We began today by visiting the county clerk's office at the court house in Ithaca. There are census records, land deed records and wills located in the building. The 1825 and 1835 census reports are not on the internet and thus were of particular interest. John Abbott and wife had 4 cows, 2 sheep and a hog. In the 1825 census there are 2 males listed, one below voting age, and a female. They owned 20 acres, 6 cattle, 14 sheep and 6 hogs. Reuben only owned 1 cow, 7 sheep and 2 hogs.We looked in the 1835 Newfield census to answer the question as to whether Reuben was still alive. After lifting a 2 foot wide, heavy, leather bound logbook and placing it on a long standing bench, it only took 5 minutes to locate John Abbott followed by Mary Strong and family. This settles the issue that Reuben had passed, probably in 1834 since Mary gave birth to a daughter in 1834 and Reuben Jr in 1832. Another interesting bit of information from this census,was the listing of their animals and hand made cloth. In the household were 4 males, one eligible to vote, and 5 females, 2 married and 3 unmarried under 16. In addition, she owned 17.7 acres, 2 cows, 12 sheep and 2 hogs. There is a listing of about 25 yards of cloth of linen, wool and cotton. Clearly the sheep were providing the clothes.
We did find the Danby land sale deed from Mary to Electa in 1853. It is assumed that this sale was done just prior to Jasper and family along with Mary moving to Ontario. In 1850, Mary was 59, Jasper 21 and Martha 16. Also in the household is Margaret Barbour, age 94. Her age matches up with John Abbott's wife but the name is a mystery. Was she previously married? Is this her maiden name? Unanswered questions.
Tomorrow we are meeting Cheryl at the University and will search marriage and death notices along with other papers that cover 1820 - 1870. We also plan to stop at the Historical Society building and in days to come, Newfield, Danby and possibly Owego, where Tioga County records were kept as of 1798. There were a lot of Strong families in the area during this time period, many of them in Lansing, according to the book of deeds. There is a good chance that these are related but we may not be able to prove it. We also will look for Philip Strong's birth record since he was likely born in or near Danby in 1851. Records are scarce for this period but we will continue to search.
The area is beautiful and the afternoon thunder showers freshen the air and make it quite enjoyable. We may not find the answers we seek but the journey is still worthwhile.

Tompkins County - Day 1

Sunday, 29 June 2008

We traveled from Providence RI, where our son David lives with his wife and 2 children. We loaded up the car and, with various entertainment devices in hand to occupy a 5 and 9 year old, we headed west through the green rolling hills of Massachusetts and New york. It was a hot and muggy day but the the scenery was entertaining and the rolling hillsides and farmlands gave us an idea of centuries past. It is a 6 hour drive to Ithaca NY but the MapQuest directions served us well and we arrived to find our little rental house just right for the 6 of us. Ithaca is a typical college town with lots of fast food restaurants and a laid back atmosphere. It's the 4th of July week and many tourists are also in town to enjoy the area and its many attractions. It is nestled at the foot of Cayuga Lake in the Finger Lakes region and takes pride in its gorges, camping sites, hiking trails, water falls and lake activities.
The finger lakes extend north and south across Central New York like the fingers of a pair of outstretched hands. They were formed by glaciers that covered the state and formed the lake basins and river valleys of the region. There are two long ridges that run north and south and the roads follow these paths to Newfield and Danby where Reuben and Mary Strong settled along with their 10 children, including Jasper. There are 29 parks and recreation areas of the Finger Lakes State Parks, thus providing a wide variety of vacation opportunities.
We had identified Reuben's town through the census reports but it turns out to be slightly more complicated due to the restructuring of towns and counties during this very time. He is listed in the 1820 census in Cayuta and in the 1830 census as in Newfield. I assumed they had moved during this time since there is a Cayuta on the current map. As it turns out, Newfield was originally called Cayuta so they are one and the same. Newfield was taken from Spencer, Tioga Co., NY about 1811, called Cayuta and then the name was changed to Newfield when it became a part of Tompkins Co., abt. 1817. This also explains the John Abbot connection, (somehow related to Mary Abbot Strong) who is listed in the 1810 Spencer census and thereafter next to Reuben in the 1820 and 1830 census. Since Reuben is missing in the 1840 census, we have noted that Mary and kids seem to be in John's family, since he and his wife are alone in the others. The question was when did Reuben pass away?
Fortunately, I have had assistance from various family researchers who have added various pieces to the puzzle . Jeff Hayward is a descendant of Anna Strong, Reuben and Mary's first born child. He had shared a document of the sale of land from Mary Strong to Electa Hayward in 1853, his 4g Grandmother. He has also been working on the Abbott family and the Messenger family (Martha Messenger, Jasper's wife). More recently, I have exchanged e-mails with Cheryl Hall who was working on Freeman Strong who also lived in Tompkins county. Cheryl lives in Ithaca and works at Cornell University in town. She is also a genealogy resource for Danby in her spare time. She has provided us with a list of several potential resources to investigate in our quest for Reuben and family.