Benajah Strong (1740-1836)

Capt. Benajah Strong, b. 22 Feb 1740 in Woodbury CT., d. 22 May 1836, Lansing, Tompkins Co, N.Y. seems to be the primary link to Reuben, either as his father or grandfather. Here is the history from Dwight's:

He was 6 ft. 2 in. in height, enlisted in the French War, was a Captain of a volunteer company of soldiers in the Revolutionary war, and was present at the burning of Danbury, Ct. He removed about 1782, to Athens, Greene Co, N.Y., where he bought the confiscated farm of a tory officer, and the rights and privileges of the ferry between Athens and Hudson. He removed afterwards to the Great Bend of the Susquehannah, near Binghamton, N.Y. and after three years residence there to Ithaca, N.Y., whence (on account of the sickliness of the place) he removed after two years to Lansing, Tompkins Co, N.Y. (then Milton) where for a dollar per acre he bought two thousand acres of land, now worth on hundred dollars per acre(1871). He was entitled to a pension as a Revolutionary soldier but would never apply for it, or allow any of his family to do so,as he said that he gave his services freely to his country. He was a member of the Baptist church.After the death of his wife, Jane, in 1816, he m. in 1818,for 2d wife Mrs Abigail Powers, neé Newland widow of Elder Lemuel Powers, a Bapt. clergyman at Stillwater, N.Y. She was the mother of the first wife of Pres. Millard Fillmore.

Although the children listed in Dwight's are all born in Woodbury between 1762 -1778, the 1800 census shows 2 boys, aged 10-15 in his household. That would be the right age for Reuben and none of the others fits. It would also mean another boy in that age group may have been born along the path to Lansing. Benajah Jr is also listed in 1800 with boys of a similar age but his known sons would account for that. It's an interesting possibility.

Further research on Benajah Strong provides further evidence that he is our man. The children in the 1800 census were potentially the children of the youngest daughter. However, she is mentioned as having married but left her husband early with no children. This also matches with the 1800 census.

More on the Benajah family

More work on Benajah Sr.'s sons. 1. Dea. Benajah, (b. 1763, d. 1851) also lived in Lansing. He had a son named Benajah b. 1786 in Newburgh NY; Samuel, b. 1788 (birthplace unknow); Truman b. and Hinman D., b 1794 (unknown). Truman is listed as unmarried in Lansing in Dwight's as is Hinman D. These are in the same generation with Reuben.

2. Amos (b. 1771) lived in Lansing. He can be ruled out as the potential father, based on names in an 1825 deed conveying to legal heirs that named sons: Willis, Freeman, Amos, William, Hiram, and Charles.

3. Salmon (b. 1772) had many children but the first was born in 1797, too late for Reuben to be in his family.

4. Simeon Prime, (b. 1774) married in 1799 so also too late.

I believe this leaves us with either Benajah Sr being the father with children unlisted and born along the way like son Benajah's son somewhere in NY, or Jr. with an unlisted son somewhere along the line. Not too promising. Where's the missing link?

Possible link to Thomas Strong

There has been an interesting development in the search for our ancestry through Reuben Strong of NY. Mervin Strong has enrolled in the DNA study and is the closest match to my DNA yet, with only 2 differences out of 37 markers. Of note, is that his line traces back to the Itacha, NY area where Reuben lived and thus increases the odds of Reuben being part of the Benajah Strong family that settled there. This demonstrates the value of DNA in narrowing the search among the many lines emanating from Elder John Strong. The first data that came out suggested we might be related to either John Jr or Jedediah, sons of Elder John Strong. The more data that has now be submitted changes that to suggest Thomas is the line to investigate. We were definitely interested in Benajah, who we found in Lansing NY when we spent a week in Ithaca looking for Reuben's family, but couldn't find any paper evidence that they were related. The DNA provides evidence for the relationship but there are always questions unanswered that could be clarified by more people participating. For those interested in the data, here are links to the Strong DNA information:

http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~donegalstrongs/dnaresults.htm

http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~donegalstrongs/15388.htm

http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~donegalstrongs/118848.htm

Mervin's line is as follows, from Dwight's History of the Strong Family, and he is related to Thomas. (Thomas>;Adino>t;Adino>t;Benajah>t;Salmon>;William J.>t;Giles>;Edward Charles>;Charles Edward).

Benajah is the key since he is the patriarch of the Lansing, NY family and is the likely progenitor for Reuben as either father or grandfather. He was born in Woodbury CT, son of Adino Strong Jr and Deborah Prime. He married Jane Cochrane in 1761 and his children of record were born there. He was a Revolutionary War soldier and is cited in those records as are his sons Truman (who died in service) and Benajah Jr. In 1782 the family moved to Athens, Greene Co, NY where he took over the farm of a tory officer. They moved later to the Great Bend in the Susquehannah, near Binghamton, NY and after 3 years to Ithaca, NY. Two years later, they moved to Lansing where he bought 2000 acres of land for $1/acre.,He was a member of the Baptist Church. His wife died in 1816 and he remarried a widow, Abigail Powers, nee Newland in 1818 (she is noted as the mother of the wife of President Millard Fillmore). Benajah died in 1836 and is buried in the Strong Graveyard near Lansing.

The challenge is connecting Reuben is the lack of paper evidence and the dates. By census reports, Reuben was born between 1780 and 1790, likely towards the end since his wife Mary Abbott was born in 1791. That could mean that, if he is a son of Benajah, he would have been born in NY, either Athens or Binghamton, and we have no records of that. He also could be a grandson although he isn't in any of the published family records of Benajah Jr, Amos or Salmon. Benajah Jr was born in 1763 and his first son Benajah was born in 1786, the right time period, in Newburgh, NY (another place to look). His second son, Samuel, was born in 1788.

Benajah Sr's second son is Amos, b. 1771 and married Polly Goodwin. Unfortunately there is no information in Dwight's about this family, thus is of interest, although he would have been a little young to be Reuben's father.

All of these boys married Lansing girls and thus are in the area at the right time for Reuben.

We will continue to investigate

John Abbot Information

New information on the John Abbot family in Newfield, NY comes from Ted Reising-Derby :

Here is what I extrapolated from "our"John's pension records statement: about 1776 he was living in Oxford in Sussex Co. NJ, enlisted at Oxford NJ and lived there until about "4 years after the war" (if so, about 4 years after 1783?) therefore:

e1787 to e1795 in Northumberland Co. PA

e1795 to e1799 in Luzerne Co PA

e1799 to e1803 in Cayuga Co NY

e1803? to Newfield (a.k.a. Cayuta/Spencer) NY

*-HOWEVER, if Mary (ABBOTT)STRONG was born in NEW JERSEY in 1791, then as you can see, the above movement dates don't "mesh", and the dates need to be moved forward a bit.....certainly John was stating loosely his movements, anyway. Then maybe he was still in PA in 1800, until about 1807; and therefore would be in PA 1800 census?, but I am not finding him there either. I suppose if we knew the birthplaces of all of his children, it will make things fit better. No one, as yet, seems to have claimed this particular John ABBOTT as a DAR ancestor, or at least he is not in the DAR website database (altho two other, different, John ABBOTTs of NJ, are, including the other one who died 26 Jul 1840, and the DAR record says that one was not from Sussex Co.). About the only other thing that I gleaned fromrecords is that John's wife Anna seems to have died 1840/1841; her name is not on the deed when John ABBOTT sold his Newfield 20ac to David KELLOGG in 1841. When you were in Tompkins Co. area, did you locate John as a purchaser/grantee rather than as seller/grantor when he sold off his properties?[.....I suppose his purchase have been recorded in a different County (Tioga?) than the sale in Tompkins, due to all the border changes of that area.]One additional point about John ABBOTT's land transfers.....he apparently only deeded a small portion of his 20 acres to the school, being only 40 feet by 4 rods. The remainder of the 20 acres of property seems to also have been transferred by John, about a year later, in 1841, to David KELLOG....but at that later time Ann did not sign off (as she did to the school) so Ann was presumably dead by 1841. I guess we would have to check with Tioga Co. to see when John bought that 20 acres in Newfield a.k.a. "Spencer" a.k.a. "Cayuta"?..I'm guessing about 1805? Anyway, it would seem then, since John was still alive in 1841, that "our" John died in March 1850 probably while living with his dau.(?) Mary STRONG in Danby....or at least that corresponds to her living in Danby in 1850, and that he died "in Danby" just shortly before the 1850 census and mortality census (....presumably Mary was caring for her children and the elderly ABBOTTs in 1840...they were around 80 y.o in 1840.....so it's probable that she was still caring for John up til he died in 1850). That transfer of the remaining 20 acres in 1841 also verifies that John was still alive in 1841... therefore is a different Rev. veteran from NJ than the other "John ABBOTT" who died in 1840.

Strongs in Connecticut

We spent the first week in September in New York and Rhode Island where I celebrated a birthday at son David's home. On the 5th, he took the day off and we drove over to Connecticut to follow up on the Philip Strong lead and search a couple of towns which were known to have several Strong families. One reference had Philip born in 1760 in Hebron, Tolland Co, CT. The Tolland County website listed the town of Tolland as the county seat and as the place where documents could be found, so we set off with that as our destination. It is only 65 miles from Warwick, RI to Tolland and a scenic drive through wooded landscape and rolling hills. We passed by Hartford on the freeway and Windsor is not far off, where Elder John Strong the patriarch of the family settled. We arrived at the courthouse in Tolland and were directed across the street to the historical society only to discover that the early records in this county are stored at each of the town's courthouses rather than being centralized. The Philip Strong who died in Scipio, NY was listed as born in Hebron but his parents and other sibs were born in Warren, Litchfield CO, CT. Since we didn't have the time to travel further west, we decided to go to Coventry, just to the south of Tolland, where many of the Jedediah Strong family settled. We know from DNA studies that we are likely descended from either Jedediah (1637-1733) or John Strong Jr.(1626-1697). Furthermore, Coventry is known for being the birthplace of Nathan Hale, the patriot of the Revolutionary War, who was hanged as a spy. Nathan's mother was Elizabeth Strong (1704-1792), a great granddaughter of Jedidiah and from Northampton, MA. Her father was Joseph Strong Jr (1701-1773) (from Joseph Strong Sr - Thomas Strong) and her mother was Elizabeth Strong (1704-1792) (from Preserved Strong - Jedediah), second cousins.

We found the courthouse of Coventry, a small modern building along the main highway. A brief search of records brought us to a page in the log book with handwritten entries of the marriages, births and deaths of many of the Strong family members. Most of Joseph Strong's family are listed and are buried in Coventry along with Jedediah. We paid $10 to make a copy of the page from the log book. Unfortunately, there was no listing for  Philip Strong and the dates ranged from 1728 to 1775.

After a quick lunch, we drove on a two lane road in the countryside to the home of Richard Hale and Elizabeth Strong which is now an historical site. We took a tour of the home which is preserved along with the other farm buildings and fields. It is a typical home of its time as you can see from the picture of the Strong home, a two story frame building, painted red. There are pictures of the Hales on the walls. At one point Richard and Elizabeth shared the home with their son Richard Jr., each living in half of the house and sharing the kitchen and dining areas. The Strong family had a similar home just down the road about a 1/2 mile which we also toured, thanks to the custodian who is living in it.

Although we were unable to make any connections to Reuben Strong on this trip, we likely eliminated Coventry as his family homestead. It is always interesting to visit these areas and picture where and how these early settlers lived.

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.)