Edward Hicks STRAHORN

Notes:

John T. Warren, auctioneer for William S. Evans and Heister Hess, Esqs., receivers, on Tuesday afternoon sold at public sale at the Court House door the property of Strayhorn Brothers, consisting of a farm of 61 acres, improved by a dwelling house and saw and bending mill. It was purchased by Edward H. Strayhorn for $4,700. A portable saw mill, boiler and engine were offered for sale, but $350 only being bid, was withdrawn. -The Cecil Whig, Elkton, Maryland 31 Mar 1888

Edward married Annie Mary PENNYPACKER 22 Feb 1871. Annie was born 15 Aug 1851, Chester, Pennsylvania; died 10 Sep 1917, Fair Hill, Cecil, Maryland. [Group Sheet]

1. Florence I. STRAHORN was born 1872, Pennsylvania; died 23 Dec 1892, New Castle, Delaware; was buried Head of Christiana Church Cemetery, Newark, New Castle, Delaware.
2. Elsie M. STRAHORN was born Abt 1876, Fair Hill, Cecil, Maryland; died 24 Dec 1938, Kemblesville, Chester, Pennsylvania.
3. Edna Grace STRAHORN was born Abt 1877, Fair Hill, Cecil, Maryland.
4. Mary I. STRAHORN was born Jan 1879, Fair Hill, Cecil, Maryland; died 1951.
5. Jonathan G. STRAHORN was born 13 Jan 1881, Fair Hill, Cecil, Maryland; died 18 Mar 1942, Campbell, Mahoning, Ohio; was buried Lake Park Cemetery, Youngstown, Mahoning, Ohio.
6. Isaac Wilbur STRAHORN was born 30 Nov 1882, Fair Hill, Cecil, Maryland; died 18 Jun 1965, Elkton, Cecil, Maryland; was buried Cherry Hill United Methodist Church Cemetery, Cherry Hill, Cecil, Maryland.
7. Harold West STRAHORN was born 14 Oct 1886, Fair Hill, Cecil, Maryland; died 19 Nov 1956, Fair Hill, Cecil, Maryland; was buried Cherry Hill United Methodist Church Cemetery, Cherry Hill, Cecil, Maryland.
8. Elizabeth H. STRAHORN was born May 1887, Fair Hill, Cecil, Maryland.

Notes:

1850 Census in District 4, Cecil, Maryland
1860 Census in District 4, Cecil, Maryland
1870 Census in District 4, Cecil, Maryland with $6,000 in Real Estate

Jonathan married Martha A. WILLIAMSON 7 Jan 1830, Faggs Manor Presbyterian Church, Chester, Pennsylvania. Martha was born 1808; died 14 Feb 1870, Fair Hill, Cecil, Maryland; was buried Head of Christiana Church Cemetery, Newark, New Castle, Delaware. [Group Sheet]

Notes:

1789 Tax List in Horsham, Montgomery, Pennsylvania
1800 US Census in Goshen, Chester, Pennsylvania
1800 Pennsylvania Compiled Census in Goshen, Chester, Pennsylvania next to Robert Strayhorn
1810 US Census in New London, Chester, Pennsylvania
1820 US Census in New London, Chester, Pennsylvania
1830 US Census in New London, Chester, Pennsylvania
1842 Pennsylvania Compiled Census in New London, Chester, Pennsylvania as 'Samuel J. Strayhorn'
1850 US Census in New London, Chester, Pennsylvania living with son Robert. Birthplace: Ireland.

Samuel married Hannah GHEEN 1 Feb 1798, Thornbury, Chester, Pennsylvania. Hannah was born Thornbury, Chester, Pennsylvania; died Bef 1850. [Group Sheet]

Other Events:

• Emigration: Apr 1775

Notes:

According to the Biographical History of Chester and Delaware Counties by Cope and Ashmeade (the copy I have seen was entitled Historic Homes and Institutions and Genealogical and Personal Memoirs of Chester and Delaware Counties -Ed) published in 1901, Vol 2, page 394, "Robert Strahorn was a Scottish dissenter, who left his native land in order to escape religious persecution, and landed in America in April 1775, about the time of the outbreak of the Revolutionary War. He enlisted three times in the Continental Army, serving through the entire war, and never receiving a wound. He participated in some of the most memorable events which marked the struggle for independence, and was a sharer in many of the greatest of the hardships which fell to the lot of the devoted patriot army. He accompanied Washington when the latter, on that never-to-be-forgotten Christmas night, crossed the Delaware in order to surprise the Hessians at Trenton, and he shared all the sufferings of the winter at Valley Forge. Robert brought his two sons, Nathaniel and Samuel with him to America in 1775." (Most arrival records recorded males over sixteen years old, so Margaret was likely not recorded -Ed.)

Robert "heroically ate rats with Washington at Valley Forge." from Ninety Years of Boyhood the autobiography of Robert E. Strahorn, Robert's great-great-grandson.

"I also have a Robert Strayhorn who was born in 1733 in Scotland and had two sons Nathaniel and Samuel who were born in Ireland before emigrating to the America's in 1775, where he settled in the New London, Chester, PA area. Nathaniel married a lady by the name of Olympia and had 5 children Hannah, Samuel, Thomas, Elizabeth, and Peter. Of these folks, I have little else other that Nathaniel married in Montgomery CO PA. Robert's son Samuel, had descendants who settled in Ceder Rapids IA, Hardin CO IA, and other places in IA, as well as in New London PA, and Dakota territories as well as Cecil CO MD. This line contains 157 people and it is my belief that Eva Armitage compiled it." -Ed Reynolds, Rootsweb Archiver > STRAYHORN > 2000 > 0962906061



The timing and circumstances of Robert's residence in Ireland are uncertain, as Ireland was not mentioned in either the Cope and Ashmeade nor the Donald Whyte volumes. But Ed Reynolds' sources claimed an Irish sojourn, Robert's son Samuel Strayhorn listed his place of birth as 'Ireland' in the 1850 US Census, and we found a birth record for a Margaret Strehorn in Antrim, a port city on the northeast of Ireland near Scotland. We also found a reference to a Robert Strahorn also in Antrim in a 1761 newspaper article in Belfast. Robert's occupation was listed as a 'weaver' when he arrived in Philadelphia, and linen weaving had been a robust industry in Ireland, but was in decline by the mid 1700s due to competition from less expensive mechanized American cotton weaving. There are also records of a Joseph Strayhorn in Antrim, so one might expect the two to have been related.



According to Dictionary of Scottish Immigrants to the U.S.A. by Donald Whyte, our Robert Strayhorn was born in Ayrshire, Scotland.



1779 Tax Exoneration List in Whitemarsh Ward, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
1781 Pennsylvania Census in Upper Dublin, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania as 'Weaver'
1783 Pennsylvania Census in Horsham, Montgomery, Pennsylvania
1789 Pennsylvania Census in Horsham, Montgomery, Pennsylvania
1790 US Census in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania with nine household members.
1793 Pennsylvania Census in Buckingham, Bucks, Pennsylvania, one the owners of a distillery
1793 September Taxable List in East Whiteland, Chester, Pennsylvania
1800 Pennsylvania Census in Goshen, Chester, Pennsylvania next to Samuel Strayhorn
1805 Taxable List in Goshen, Chester, Pennsylvania
1820 US Census in New London, Chester, Pennsylvania possibly living with his son Samuel



We have personally examined the church records in Ayr, Ayrshire, Scotland and in Antrim, Northern Ireland and we are certain that the Robert Straehorn born in 1731 and his wife Margaret Ross were not our Robert Strayhorn family, notwithstanding many Ancestry.com family trees to the contrary. The births of our Robert's children were interspersed timewise with this Robert Straehorn's children, but were not recorded in the Ayr church records. For this to have been our Robert would have required a second wife in Ireland during this same period, an unlikely scenario.



The 1790 US Census records Robert Strayhorn in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania with nine household members. It is not clear who in addition to Nathaniel, Samuel, and Margaret the additional household members could have been, although it was common to take in renters if one had the space.

Robert — FNU LNU. [Group Sheet]

Notes:

She was definitely not Margaret Ross.

Notes:

No birth records, thus no mother(s), have been found for Samuel and Nathaniel Strayhorn, and the birth record for Margaret does not name her parents.