Elizabeth (Lizzie) K. STRAHORN

Elizabeth married George K. FRANZ 23 Dec 1863. [Group Sheet]

Notes:

"To the citizens of Aetna township the gentleman whose life is herein reviewed is so well known as a capable farmer and honest, upright and active member of the community, as to need no introduction. Frank P. Strahorn was born in Chester county, Pennsylvania, on June 9, 1851, the son of Joseph and Eliza (Alcott) Strahorn. His father was born in 1805 and died on July 20, 1876. His mother was born in 1812, and died on December 1, 1877. His grandparents, Joseph and Alcott Strahorn, were natives of Pennsylvania, of Scotch descent, and lived to be very old, dying in their native state. (his grandparents were actually Samuel Strahorn & Hannah Gheen -Ed)

Joseph Strahorn and his family came to Iowa in 1856, a year well remembered by early settlers on account of the deep snow of that winter. With his wife and twelve children he settled on the present Strahorn homestead, in section 29, Aetna township, Hardin county. Of his six sons and six daughters, nine are living, whose names follow: Mary Jane, now Mrs. Garrett, of Spokane, Washington; Hannah, now a widow, Mrs. Gleason, of Cedar county, Iowa; Samuel, of Spokane, Washington; Elizabeth, now Mrs. Frantz, of Portland, Oregon; William, of Portland, Oregon; Jesse, a twin of William, of South Dakota; Anna, now Mrs. Millikan, of Hardin county; Joseph; and Frank P. The deceased are George K.; Danna, Mrs. Davis; and Isabelle, Mrs. Swartwood. Past and Present of Hardin County, Iowa edited by William J. Moir. Indianapolis: B. F. Bowen, 1911.



According to "oral history" and/or family lore, the Strahorns were among the earliest homesteaders in Hardin and Franklin Counties. Supposedly the oxen died in Hardin County so some of the family decided to settle there. Other family members were determined to travel further so they hitched up the cow to pull the wagon. The cow died in Ackley (Franklin County) and they decided to give up and settle that area. My mother actually had the original oxen yoke hanging on her wall as a decoration for several years. It was given to her by Franklin. It was fascinating to me. If my memory is right, she eventually donated it to the Hardin County Historical Society." -Judi (Strahorn) Wiskus

Joseph — Elizabeth ALCOTT. Elizabeth was born 27 Apr 1810; died 2 Dec 1877; was buried Oak Wood Cemetery, Ackley, Franklin Co., Iowa. [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.