Albert H. Strong Biography, from "1901 Fitch's History of Fayette Co, Iowa"

….Albert H. Strong, a resident of Fayette, who is now retired from business life, is a native of Connecticut. He was born in Tolland County, April 12, 1811, and distinctly remembers seeing General La Fayette on his second visit to America in 1825. His parents were Noah and Grace Foote Strong, both of whom were also natives of Connecticut, while the families on both sides have for many generations remote been residents of the country (USA). His father was a farmer and lived to be about ninety-two years of, while his wife had also attained to a ripe old age at her death.

….In their family were nine children, of whom out subject was the eldest. Owing to this fact and that four or five girls came after him, he was called upon to do the chores and run the errands as well as perform his share of the labor in the field. His education went no farther than initiation into the mysteries of the three R’s, but by personal effort he has made himself a well-informed man. On reaching mature years, he worked for some time in the dyeing house in Hartford, Conn., and in 1834, traveling by way of the Erie Canal to Buffalo and on to Detroit and by stage to White Pigeon, Michigan, entered land in that locality and improved a farm. He enlisted to go to the Toledo war and was commissioned Captain of the militia of Michigan Territory.

….On January 6, 1837,Mr. Strong married Ann Coffinger, who was born April 28, 1818, in Auburn, N.Y. After a number of years residence east of the Mississippi, in July, 1854, they crossed the Father of Waters and made their way by wagon to Chickasaw County, Iowa, where Mr. Strong developed and improved a farm. In 1865,he came to the city of Fayette, Iowa, and has since made this his home. His wife died December 30, 1865, the same year. Their union was blessed with six children. Harriet, born October 6, 1837, became the wife of George W. Jenkins and died in Nebraska, January 10, 1864; George W., born February 5,1839, served through the war in Co. C, Thirty-eighth Iowa Infantry and now resides in Ward County, N.D.; Jennette, born June 2, 1841, married Joshua Hawkins and died in Parris, Monroe County, Missouri., April 8, 1887; Albert G., born October 18, 1843, enlisted in Company B. Seventh Iowa Infantry in October 1861, and died in the hospital at St. Louis, on December 15, 1861: Willard, born Ap[ril 21, 1845, died March 2, 1858; Catherine Grace.., born March 26, 1853, is the wife of Thomas Vincent Hunt (son of Reuben Sr. and Eliz Wrench Hunt, Fayette) principal of the schools in Delhi, Delaware County, Iowa. On January 7, 1867, Mr. Strong was joined in wedlock with Miss Laura S. Burch, who was born in London, Canada, July 5, 1827, and is a daughter of John and Lydia (Hogaboeme) Burch, natives of Vermont and New York respectively. Both went with their parents to Canada, where they married, removing thence to Illinois in 1840, and to this county in 1857. They located in Fayette, where Mr. Burch carried on the drug store business. His death occurred at the age of sixty-five years and his wife was called to her final rest when sixty-eight years of age. Both were member of the Methodist Church and their family numbers eight children, of whom Mrs. Strong is fifth in order of birth.

….Mr. and Mrs. Strong are also members of the Methodist Church. He cast his first vote for Andrew Jackson and continued to support the Democratic party until the time of the election of Polk when he became an Abolitionist and voted for Briney and Hale. On the organization of the Republican party he joined its ranks and cast his ballot for Fremont, Lincoln and its other Presidential nominees until the rise the Prohibition party, since which time he has advocated it principles. Through nearly eighty years of age Mr. Strong is active in body and mind and there is no apparent reason why he may not live to be one hundred. "1891Biographies of Fayette Co, Iowa"