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Below is a family biography included in Biographical and Portrait Cyclopedia of Chautauqua County, New York published by John M. Gresham & Co. in 1891. These biographies are valuable for genealogy research in discovering missing ancestors or filling in the details of a family tree. Family biographies often include far more information than can be found in a census record or obituary. Details will vary with each biography but will often include the date and place of birth, parent names including mothers' maiden name, name of wife including maiden name, her parents' names, name of children (including spouses if married), former places of residence, occupation details, military service, church and social organization affiliations, and more. There are often ancestry details included that cannot be found in any other type of genealogical record.
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GILBERT W. STRONG, a prominent financier and business man residing in the village of Sherman, is a son of Henry and Mary (Christman) Strong, and was born in Erie county, New York, November 19, 1843. Both parents were natives of Herkimer county, and the father was a prominent farmer and business man. He conducted a tannery in addition to his farm, and when the Erie canal was under construction he took a number of contracts upon it. George Strong, father of Henry Strong, was a Connecticut Yankee of English descent, and our subject’s grandfather, Christman, was a Mohawk Valley Dutchman. Great-grandfather, John Herkimer, was a brother of Gen. Nicholas Herkimer, who was killed at Oriskany while on his way, at the head of eight hundred troops, to relieve Fort Schuyler, at the time besieged by the British colonel, St. Leger. Herkimer county, New York, was named commemorative of this family. Subject’s mother’s grandfather, Captain Small, also lost his life in the Revolutionary struggle, being killed and scalped by Indians.
Gilbert W. Strong was reared upon his father’s farm and received his education at the Springfield, Erie county, academy, and upon leaving school, he learned tanning with his father. When twenty -two years old he established himself in the same business at Yorkshire, Cattaraugus county, where he pursued a successful career for five years. Succeeding this, he went to the oil regions and remained ten years, being moderately successful, but in 1883 Mr. Strong came to Sherman and built the “Strong Block,” a two-story and basement structure, fifty by sixty-five feet in dimensions. Mr. Strong is a democrat with free trade proclivities, and in 1889 he was the nominee of his party for the Assembly, but the opposing party has such a large majority in the district that he was defeated. For the past six years he has been a member of the school board and was two years its president. Gilbert W. Strong is identified with the State bank of Sherman, being one of its stockholders, and is the owner of three hundred and fifty acres of oil and timber lands in McKean county, Pennsylvania.
In 1871 he was married to Mary Whitney, of Yorkshire, New York, and they have three children: Mary, Harry and Howard.
Mr. Strong has a fine home and happy surroundings, and is one of those who can afford to survey the strife of the world with nonchalance.
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This family biography is one of 658 biographies included in Biographical and Portrait Cyclopedia of Chautauqua County, New York published in 1891.
View additional Chautauqua County, New York family biographies here: Chautauqua County, New York Biographies
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