Tombstone Tuesday: Abner Strong

Abner Strong was born in Lee, Massachusetts on April 7, 1780. He married Sally Bassett in Homer, New York in 1801. In 1815, Mr. and Mrs. Abner Strong moved to Lyme Township in Huron County, Ohio. Abner had a farm in the area of Lyme Township known as "Strong's Ridge," named after the Strong family, pioneer residents of the region.(Major Joseph Strong, older brother of Abner, was the earliest family member to settle in Strong's Ridge.)

Rush Sloane, the grandson of Abner Strong, wrote of Abner in Volume V of the New Series, Firelands Pioneer, that he was a man of earnest principle, and was firm in his principles of temperance. "He was a strong abolitionist, a friend of the slave and never failed to aid them." Hewson Peeke wrote in his 1916 edition of A STANDARD HISTORY OF ERIE COUNTY, OHIO: "Abner Strong of Strong's Ridge Lyme, Huron County, Ohio, was always ready to receive, care for and send to Sandusky, in good conveyance, the fugitives who reached that 'Strong' and safe station."

Abner Strong died at Bellevue on February 3, 1859. He was buried at the Strong's Ridge Cemetery, located just east of the intersection of State Route 113 and Route 4.His wife, Sally Bassett Strong, died in 1865. She is also buried at Strong's Ridge Cemetery.



The children of Abner and Sally Bassett Strong were: Cynthia, Eunice, Pelatiah, Alonzo, and Benjamin. Obituaries for Mr. and Mrs. Abner Strong are found in Volume V of the new series of the Firelands Pioneer, available fulltext at Google Books.