William Henry Stratton (b. 1845) graduated in 1867 from Hamilton College, Clinton, New York with a B.A. degree in Business. After graduation he headed west to Nebraska to ply the mercantile trade. He and his partners had a warehouse in Chicago to store bulk amounts of what they sold in their various stores. The warehouse and its contents burned down during the Chicago Fire.

William Henry Stratton first arrived at Lincoln, Nebraska to establish his mercantile business. His mother "Ma Amy" soon joined him in 1868. Then in 1872 they moved to Turkey Creek in Harlan County and helped establish the village of Bainbridge (later renamed Huntley). There William Henry Stratton married Julia Ann Dodd in December of 1878. In 1884 William Henry and Julia Stratton moved with their three children Warner, Essie and Ray to Malcom, Iowa where William Henry had purchased a brick mercantile store and its contents with a mortgage of $2,000. "Ma Amy" arrived in Malcom, Iowa in June of 1884. In early 1888 the store and property of William Henry Stratton flooded out, and the family with their five children (Warner, Essie, Ray, Addie and Calvin) moved to Cherry County, Nebraska, where William Henry established another mercantile store at "Oasis" (near Arabia) and his mother "Ma Amy" (Amy Permelia Fuller Stratton) was the postmistress at the Simeon post office. The Stratton family spent nearly two years living in a large tent, the edges weighted down in the winter with bales of hay to keep out the snow and cold wind. Eventually William Henry built a wood house from the wooden slats of the pallets and boxes his merchandise arrived in by train.

In 1900 William Henry sent Julia and their 11 children (Warner, Essie, Ray, Addie, Calvin, Hazel, Sarah, Amy, Floyd, Alice and baby Grace) to Oakmound, Missouri to farm, while he stayed in Cherry County, Nebraska to "close up his business." People owed him money and he owed his suppliers money and he didn't want to go bankrupt yet again.

In Oakmound, Julia had the post office set up in a corner of her living room, and the family raised beans and sweet potatoes, as well as did general farming. Calvin Riggs Dodd (Julia's father) lived with them and owned the adjoining farm property. When the house burned down in 1905, Calvin Riggs Dodd used his carpentry skills to remodel the separate carriage house into a dwelling for the family. Essie married H. Clint Houser in 1903 and Addie married Ben F. Chesterman in 1905.

In 1907 both Addie and Essie were pregnant, with due dates within a month of each other. Essie was very sick with her pregnancy, and Addie and Ben had moved to Kansas and of course wanted Mamma Julia to come and help with the birth. Julia decided the only solution was to take Essie and the younger children still at home by train to Seldon, Kansas so that she could attend to both of her daughters. Gernie Houser was born in late August of 1907, and Lawrence Chesterman was born in early September, 1907. Essie eventually returned to Missouri; but Julia, with Floyd, Alice and Grace stayed on in Kansas. Calvin Riggs Dodd put the Missouri property up for sale, and when the money came through Julia purchased a house in Beaver City, Nebraska near where her son Calvin Stratton was farming. William Henry was still up in Cherry County, "closing up his business."

In 1918 Julia went to Cherry County to help her husband with his business. They ran a rooming house for a time, and then established a creamery to purchase cream to turn into butter and cheese for sale. By 1923 William Henry's debts were paid and he felt he could retire. Julia then brought her husband (age 78) to Beaver City, Furnas County, Nebraska where they lived for the next 20 years.