American Legislator and Judge. He graduated from Yale University in 1828 and taught school in Burlington, New Jersey while studying law with Garret D. Wall. He completed his legal studies with a six month course at Yale Law School, was admitted to the bar, and started a practice in Reading, Pennsylvania. In 1846 he was elected to the US House of Representatives as a Democrat, and he was reelected in 1848, serving from 1847 to 1851. In 1857 he ran successfully for a seat on the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. His antislavery views soon caused him to switch to the Republican Party, and he supported the Union during the American Civil War. He left the bench in 1868 and practiced law in Philadelphia. In 1870 President Ulysses Grant nominated former Secretary of War Edwin Stanton for a seat on the US Supreme Court. Stanton died without taking office, and Grant then nominated Strong, who served as an Associate Justice until retiring in 1880. Strong was a member of the electoral commission that decided the disputed 1876 presidential election, and voted to award the contested electoral votes to the Republican ticket of Rutherford B. Hayes and William A. Wheeler. In retirement he resided in Washington, DC, and in the years immediately before his death he received injuries from a fall down the stairs and suffered other health concerns. He was taken to his family's summer vacation place in upstate New York in a semi-comatose state, and died there after a stroke.
American Legislator and Judge. He graduated from Yale University in 1828 and taught school in Burlington, New Jersey while studying law with Garret D. Wall. He completed his legal studies with a six month course at Yale Law School, was admitted to the bar, and started a practice in Reading, Pennsylvania. In 1846 he was elected to the US House of Representatives as a Democrat, and he was reelected in 1848, serving from 1847 to 1851. In 1857 he ran successfully for a seat on the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. His antislavery views soon caused him to switch to the Republican Party, and he supported the Union during the American Civil War. He left the bench in 1868 and practiced law in Philadelphia. In 1870 President Ulysses Grant nominated former Secretary of War Edwin Stanton for a seat on the US Supreme Court. Stanton died without taking office, and Grant then nominated Strong, who served as an Associate Justice until retiring in 1880. Strong was a member of the electoral commission that decided the disputed 1876 presidential election, and voted to award the contested electoral votes to the Republican ticket of Rutherford B. Hayes and William A. Wheeler. In retirement he resided in Washington, DC, and in the years immediately before his death he received injuries from a fall down the stairs and suffered other health concerns. He was taken to his family's summer vacation place in upstate New York in a semi-comatose state, and died there after a stroke.
Bio by: Bill McKern
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