Albert N. and Patricia (Hatch) Morrier – Strong Road

This was the homestead of Ichabod Strong and part of the house standing today may be the original house.  According to early town records Ichabod Strong came here from Northampton in May, 1733.  He was born on October 1, 1711, and married November 28, 1734 to Mary Davis (born 1713–died August 26, 1749).  Ichabod and Mary Strong had six children: (1) Ichabod–born and died 1735; (2) Aaron, born October 2, 1736, married Sarah Burt, they had six children (He was killed in Revolutionary War–1777.); (3) John, born February 7, 1739, married 1768 Sarah Lyman and Abigail Clapp (second wife)– John and Abigail both died in 1821; (4) Solomon, born 1741 and died 1743; (5) Mary, born February 2, 1744, married (1763) Elijah Wright, died 1836; (6) Solomon born December 25, 1746.

Ichabod Strong married (2) Eunice Sheldon on June 24, 1751.  Ichabod and Enuice had one son, Job, who was baptized August 2, 1752, died November 15, 1806.  Ichabod became quite well-to-do, owning a sawmill, grist-mill, potash works, tannery, and much real estate.  He owned at least four separate farms, and in his will, probated in 1798, and he left his home farm to his son, Job.  The farm across the road (where buildings burned in 1934 and known as the Homer Strong Farm) he left to his three grandsons, sons of Aaron who had been killed in the Revolution.  He also left a farm each to his sons Solomon and John.

John Strong married Lydia Clapp in 1780.  John and Lydia had five children; Eunice, Lydia, Job Sheldon, William, and Sylvester. Sylvester became the next owner of this property.  William became a minister and settled in Ohio.

Ransford Root bought this property from Sylvester Strong in 1831  (68-282).  Ransford Root married Sarah Sheldon in 1803.  Their eight children were all born before they purchased this property, and were married between 1830 and 1846.  Their children were as follows:  Naomi, married Samuel Hurlburt;  Ransford, Jr. married Laura Searle; Sarah married Henry Gridley; Doris married Ira Searle, jr., Donus married Catherine Searle; Cornelia married Daniel E. Barnes.  The other two were Doris and Martha.

In 1839, John B. Lyman purchased this property from Ransford Root for $2,500 (85-277).  He had married, 1815, Ruth Strong, daughter of Waitstill Strong.  This Lyman family was identified more with the town of Norwich than Southampton.

In 1844, Ransford Root bought this property back from John B. Lyman for $2,000 (105-537).

In 1845 Joseph William Miller bought it from Ransford Root.  Joseph Miller was born in Avon, Conneticut, (sic) 1811, and married Betsy Burt of Southampton in 1837.  The had one son, Edward , who later owned the Walter Thomas farm on Moose Brook Road.  Joseph William Miller died on August 15, 1882.

Sarah Bass Strong, wife of William Virgil Strong, bought this property from widow Betsy Miller in March, 1884 (386-32).  With this transaction this farm came back into ownership by the Strong family after being owned by other familes (sic) for about fifty-three years. William Virgil Strong, born July 26, 1835, died 1914, was the son of Aaron and Emily (Taylor) Strong.  He married, 1864, Sarah Bass, born 1842, died 1915.  They had two children:  Julia B., born March 3, 1867; and Clinton, born 1874, died 1938.  Julia was never married; Clincton married Lilla Newkirk.

Clinton became the owner of this property after his father and mother died.  They had two children, Alden and Ruth.  Clinton was a teacher from 1903 to the time of his death in 1938.  For a short period he was superintendent of the Pennsylvania Charter School in Philadelphia.  He spent his summers on the home farm in Southampton, his family usually arriving in May.  During this time the farm was devoted almost entirely to the productioon of hay, and the family spent the summer getting in this crop.  When the Southampton Golf Club was organized most of the farm was leased to this club, and subsequently, the club bought most of the land.

The farm which at one time contained 100 acres or more was reduced to 4-3/10 acres when Richard J. and Marcia N. Leighton bought it from the estate of Lilla N. Strong in 1950.

In 1952, William B. Bannister bought this property.

In 1953 George H. and Neeley Applegate bought it.  The Applegates had three children, Mary, George, and Nicholas.  George Applegate was an efficiency expert for Westinghouse and in 1959 was transferred to New Jersey.  They now live in Basking Ridge, New Jersey.

Francis E. Lajoie and his wife, Margaret Barrett Lajoie bought this property from the Applegates in 1960.  He is a building contractor and has built several homes in Southampton.

Albert N. and Patricia (Hatch) Morrier are the present owners buying from the Lajoie’s (sic) in late 1967.  Patricia is the daughter of Raymond and Virginia Hatch from Easthampton.  Albert is a machinist.  The Morrier’s (sic) have six children: Carol, Barbara, Jean, Sharon, David, and Kathleen.

According to an entry in Rev. Jonathon Judd’s Diary Ichabod Strong raised a house, May 12, 1772.  This may be all or part of the present house. 

While Ichabod Strong was the first settler here the land had belonged to his father Jonathon who married Mehitable Stebbins in 1704.  Jonathon had expected to marry Mary Sheldon but she had been captured the the French and Indians and taken to Canada. When she was released she married another man.  In 1762, when she and Jonathon had both lost their partners they were married to each other, he being 79 and she 75.

Much of the information in this article was furnished by Gerald E. Harriman

From–“History of Old Houses” by Atherton Parsons

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