Robert Edmund STRAHORN

Notes:

Robert was the brother of our great-grandfather, John Calvin Strahorn. He was born east of Bellefonte in Haines Twp. Centre Co., Pennsylvania. He wrote later how as a boy, he was impressed by Abraham Lincoln at the Lincoln-Douglas debates in 1858. He was typesetter and then a newspaper correspondent for the Denver News and New York Times during the Sioux campaigns of 1876-77, and fought alongside General Crook as an embedded reporter while covering the Battle of Rosebud. He was hired by Jay Gould as the first head of the Publicity Department of the Union Pacific Railroad from 1877-1783, and wrote a number of books about the resources and attractions of the western states, which helped generate waves of migration into those territories, greatly benefiting the U.P. He was instrumental in building the Oregon Short Line Railroad from Granger, Wyoming to Huntington, Oregon and through his Idaho & Oregon Land Improvement Co. founded or substantially developed the towns of Shoshone, Hailey, Mountain Home, Caldwell, Ontario, Payette, and Weiser along the route of the O.S.L. He was a founder and trustee of the College of Idaho in Caldwell. He went broke in the panic of 1893, then spent six years trading municipal bonds in Boston. He went on to build the North Coast Railroad under a secret financial arrangement with E.H. Harriman, and built Union Station in Spokane (which was demolished in 1974 for the Spokane World's Fair) and almost 750 miles of track in Washington State. This clandestine arrangement earned Robert the moniker "The Sphinx" because he would never publicly acknowledge his funding source. The North Coast Railroad was consolidated into the Oregon Washington Railroad & Navigation Co. with Robert as Vice President and General Manager. He went on to develop several railroad expansion projects into eastern Oregon through his Oregon, California & Eastern Railroad. In the period leading up the 1929 stock market crash, Robert acquired a number of commercial properties in downtown San Francisco, but was forced to deed them back to his lenders to avoid to foreclosure and bankruptcy in the years that followed. He died in 1944 in San Francisco (not in Spokane as is claimed elsewhere) and his remains are interred in a granite and marble mausoleum in Spokane along with both of his wives. There were no children from either marriage. Upon his death in San Francisco in 1944, Robert's remains were taken by his friend Thurlow Bryant (who was mentioned on page 572 of Ninety Years of Boyhood, Strahorn's autobiography) to Spokane, and Robert's personal effects, including his steamer trunk, his personalized binoculars, numerous photos and papers, and the publishing rights to his autobiography, were taken by Thurlow to his home in Caldwell, Idaho. Thurlow's wife Nellie gave these items to us in 1995 because we were the only relatives who had ever inquired after him. Thurlow died in Caldwell in 1992, and Nellie in 2001. - Gary Zentmyer

Robert married Carrie Adell GREEN 19 Sep 1877, Marengo, McHenry, Illinois. Carrie (daughter of John Wesley GREEN and Louise BABCOCK) was born 01 Jan 1854, Marengo, McHenry, Illinois; died 15 Mar 1925, San Francisco, San Francisco, California; was buried Riverside Cemetery, Spokane, Washington. [Group Sheet]

Robert married Ruby Shannon GARLAND 05 Oct 1927, St. Francis Hotel, San Francisco, California. Ruby was born 25 Aug 1883, Waco, McLennan, Texas; died 01 May 1936; was buried Riverside Cemetery, Spokane, Washington. [Group Sheet]

Notes:

1850 Census in Haines Twp., Centre Co., Pennsylvania
1852 to 1855 worked in Hartleton, Union, Pennsylvania as a Millwright
1856 to Stephenson Co., Illinois
1865 to Sedalia, Missouri
1870 Census in Washingtom Twp., Pettis Co., Missouri
1876 St. Louis Missouri City Directory, City Hotel, a Foreman
1880 Census in Ruby Valley, Madison Co., Montana, a Millwright
1882 Voter Register, Los Angeles, California
1882 A founding elder, 2nd Presbyterian Church, Los Angeles, California
1884 Voter Register, Los Angeles, California, a Carpenter
1884 Spring - Suffered a stroke in Hailey, Idaho

"My father was a rare combination of mechanic, who could build anything from a clock or engine to flouring mills or steel works; he was a fine vocal and instrumental musician, teaching music and leading a brass band, and was an exceptional country school teacher. He was a full six feet, of fine build, in rough-and-tumble athletics feared nothing. He was also a splendid shot, in the country rifle matches of those days always bringing home a quarter of beef or a brace of turkeys. He ruled us mischievous boys by merely pointing at the hickory ramrod that reposed over the fireplace." -Robert E. Strahorn, from his autobiography Ninety Years of Boyhood.

Thomas married Rebecca EMMERT Abt 1848, Centre, Pennsylvania. Rebecca (daughter of Johannes/John EMMERT and Magdalena SCHUDT) was born 1826, Bethel, Lebanon, Pennsylvania; died 1863, Harris, Centre, Pennsylvania - Tuberculosis; was buried Boalsburg Cemetery, Centre, Pennsylvania. [Group Sheet]

Samuel — Elizabeth LNU. Elizabeth was born 1795; died 11 Dec 1867, Hartley, Union, Pennsylvania; was buried Hartleton Union Church Cemetery. [Group Sheet]

Notes:

1830 Census in Bethel, Lebanon, Pennslvania
1840 Census in Potter, Centre, Pennsylvania
1850 Census in Harris, Centre, Pennsylvania occupation 'Farmer'
1870 Census in Harris, Centre, Pennsylvania occupation 'Retired Farmer'



Rehersburg in Berks County, where John's grandfather Johann Georg Emmert is buried, and Bethel Township in Lebanon County lie within two miles of each other.



Although Robert E. Strahorn's Ninety Years of Boyhood claims John Emmert was a Dutch Lutheran pastor, he was in fact of German descent. This was probably a misunderstanding of 'Pennsylvania Dutch,' which actually indicates German ancestry, a common misconception, which we have found in other family histories. But we have found no other indication that John Emmert was a pastor, and A history of the Lutheran Church in Pennsylvania 1638-1820: from the original sources" names not a single Emmert among the pastors chronicled. John consistently self-identified as a farmer, and the letter he wrote to his grandson in 1871 identified him as such, albeit as a religious man. But the letter did not display the command of English one might associate with a pastor.



"I've looked through the minutes of the Pennsylvania Ministerium from 1820-1840, but did not find any mention of a Rev. John Emmert. He is also not listed in the clergy listing in the 1892 history of the Evangelical Lutheran Synod of East Pennsylvania." -Joel Thoreson, Archivist, Archives of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.

Name recorded as 'Johannes' in Altalaha Church birth records

Johannes/John married Magdalena SCHUDT Abt 1818. Magdalena was born 1798, Pennsylvania; died 1876, Harris, Centre, Pennsylvania; was buried Boalsburg Cemetery, Centre, Pennsylvania. [Group Sheet]

Notes:

Name Magdalena from birth records for Johannes and Carolina in Tupelhocken Church birth records

Notes:

1775 April arrived from Ireland

1799 East Buffalo, Northumberland, (became Union in 1813) Pennsylvania - Annals of Buffalo Valley

1789 Horsham, Montgomery, Pennsylvania - Militia Notice

1792 Marriage in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania - St. Paul's records

1793 Cheltenham, Montgomery Pennsylvania - Census

1800 East Buffalo, Northumberland, (became Union in 1813) Pennsylvania - Census

1806 East Buffalo, Northumberland, (became Union in 1813) Pennsylvania - Annals of Buffalo Valley

1807 Acts as attorney to sell land in West Buffalo - Jauden/Jodon Family History

1810 East Buffalo, Northumberland, (became Union in 1813) Pennsylvania - Census

1820 Buffalo, Union, Pennsylvania - Census

1830 Buffalo, Union, Pennsylvania - Census

1840 Buffalo, Union, Pennsylvania - Census

Nathaniel married Olympia/Olympas JODON 13 Jun 1792, St. Paul's P.E. Church, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Olympia/Olympas was born Abt 1764; died 09 Dec 1847, East Buffalo, Union, Pennsylvania; was buried Buffalo Crossroads Presbyterian Cemetery, Union, Pennsylvania. [Group Sheet]

Martin — Catherine BRUA. Catherine was born 20 Oct 1768, Marion, Berks, Pennsylvania. [Group Sheet]