Henry Clay Strong, Soldier and Businessman

Henry Clay Strong was born on October 4, 1841 to Lyman and Calista (Nims) Strong. During the Civil War, he served for a three month term with Company B of the 88th Ohio Infantry. After that term was up, he joined Company D of Hoffman’s Battalion, later known as the 128th Ohio Volunteer Infantry, where he was appointed second sergeant. While serving in the 128th Infantry, he became commissary sergeant, and later served as first lieutenant and regimental quartermaster. For a time he was commander of Company G. 

He married Mary Harper, the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Rice Harper, in 1865. Mr. and Mrs. Strong had a son named Harper Lyman Strong in 1880, but the child died in 1881. In 1909, Mr. and Mrs. Strong legally adopted William Henry Spencer, a son of Henry Strong’s sister; he went by the name William Henry Spencer-Strong after the adoption.

After the war ended, Mr. Strong was appointed paymaster for the Sandusky, Dayton & Cincinnati Railroad. In the late 1860s and 1870s, he was a salesman for a wholesale lumber house in Sandusky. By 1874, he had moved to Newark, Ohio, where he was in a partnership with John Fleck in the wholesale grocery business. 

In 1897, Mr. Strong moved back to Sandusky, where he was one of the organizers of the Ohio Motor Company, which did business at the southeast corner of East Water and Perry Streets. The company made small engines for stationary power purposes, from the end of the 1890s until 1920. 

On June 12, 1918, Henry Clay Strong passed away following complications from surgery. He was buried in the family lot in Oakland Cemetery. Both Henry and Mary Strong had family ties to pioneer residents of Erie and Huron Counties. Read more about the early residents of the Firelands area in books, historical journals and newspapers at the Sandusky Library Archives Research Center.

Reunions

Reunions, whether informal or carefully planned, allow people to reconnect with family and friends from their past. Families, schools, colleges, military units, clubs and many other organizations hold reunions, some on an annual basis, and others not so frequently. In the first half of the twentieth century Sandusky’s local newspapers featured articles about family reunions, often in the neighborhood columns. Below is a photograph of a gathering of the Sprau family in 1916.

An article appearing in the June 18, 1921 issue of the Sandusky Star Journal reported on the sixth annual reunion of the Moyer family, held at York Center in Sandusky County. During the business meeting W. H. Moyer was elected president and Elmer Moyer was elected treasurer. The day’s events opened with the hymn “Blest be the tie that binds.” Rye Beach was chosen as the location for the seventh annual Moyer reunion. Cedar Point continues to be a popular site for family reunions, as it has been for several decades.

When the G.A.R. held annual meetings, they were called encampments. War stories and songs were shared at these well attended events. Individual military units held reunions of the surviving members of their group. The 30th Annual Reunion of the 101st Ohio Volunteer Infantry was held in Sandusky on August 27 and 18, 1896.

The August 7, 1912 issue of the Sandusky Register announced that veterans from the 128th Ohio Volunteer Infantry would meet at the West House for their thirty seventh annual reunion. Henry C. Strong was the president of the group of veterans of the 128th Infantry.

Descendants of pioneer preacher Rev. William Gurley were guests of honor at a Methodist centennial celebration held in Milan in April of 1912.

A Centennial Reunion of graduates of Sandusky High School was held in 1955.

Pictured below are Sandusky High School alumni and former faculty at a reunion held at the Rockwell Springs Trout Club in Castalia, 1950.

If you have vintage reunion photographs, consider donating them to the Sandusky Archives Research Center for future generations to enjoy.