Born and reared in the rural districts of Pennsylvania learning life’s duties amid the thrifty and industrious population of that great state and being thoroughly imbued with the spirit of economy and enterprise engendered through living in a large family with moderate means, Samuel Strickler of Tensleep in Bighorn county Wyoming brought to the arduous requirements of a career in the state of his adoption a well laid foundation for stable and productive manhood and useful citizenship on which a superstructure of substantial and comely proportions had been partially erected by valuable experience in other places and amid a different class of people. He was born on August 16, 1851 the son of John and Mary Strickler also natives of the Keystone state and belonging to families resident there from Colonial times. In public schools of his native place he received a limited education and on its soil he grew to man’s estate. When he was twenty-one years of age he determined to seek his fortune in the West, and to that end removed to Illinois and there worked for Michael Sullivan then the most extensive farmer in the world who conducted on the prairies and bottom lands along the Mississippi an enterprise in the domain of agriculture which almost staggered human belief by its magnitude and the vigor and success with which it was carried on. Many similar enterprises have since surpassed it in volume and scope; for in later times the great wilderness of the farther West has dressed herself in comely garments for the service of her lord and master man and raised the unit of measure in land and farm work many times over. But in his day Mr. Sullivan’s farming operations were stupendous and renowned. In 1874 Mr. Strickler removed to Colorado and with Pueblo as a base of operations engaged in the dairying business and also carried on a freighting enterprise of considerable magnitude. These engagements occupied him for three years. In 1877 he made his home in Utah and there conducted a farm of size and importance near Ogden. In 1879 he sold out his interests in that state and removed to Cassia County, Idaho and on May 20, 1883, came to Johnson County, Wyoming and locating at Fort McKinney entered the employ of the Powder River Cattle Company. At the end of his service with this company he took up his residence on Beaver Creek and began a farming and stockgrowing industry on his own account which he conducted until 1899. He then sold out to the Lee Land & Live Stock Company and removed to the Bighorn basin. He purchased the old X ranch and renewed his stock and farming operations which he is still carrying on in this well known property. His ranch comprises 480 acres and is well improved. He has 350 fine cattle and 100 horses of good breeds and superior grades. Both cattle and horses are excellent in quality and have a high rank in the market. They are well cared for and their condition abundantly proves the wisdom of the close application of skill and system to the breeding and rearing of stock. On December 29, 1892 Mr. Strickler was married to Miss Margaret McKenzie of Johnson County a native of Canada and daughter of William and Mary Sutherland. Their family consists of an adopted daughter named Josephine Fay Strickler, who has been under their care since she was an infant of three years of age.
