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.)