Thomas Foster STRAHORN

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:

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]

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.