Strong, William

William Strong

• Born: 6 May 1808, Somers, Connecticut
• Died: 19 August 1895, Lake Minnewassa, New York

Article from Encyclopaedia of Presbyterianism in the United States of America, pg. 873-874

Strong, William, LL. D., is one of the most eminent jurists of our country. His life has been signally marked with honor and usefulness. He was born at Somers, Conn., May 6th, 1808. His father was the Rev. William L. Strong, who for twenty-five years was pastor of the Congregational Church at Somers, succeeding Rev. Dr. Backus, and subsequently pastor of the Presbyterian Church at Vienna, N. Y. He graduated from Yale College in 1828, and taught school three years, during which he studied law, part of the time at the New Haven Law School. He commenced legal practice at Reading, Pa., in l832; in 1843 was chosen an elder of the Presbyterian Church there; in 1846 was elected to Congress, and again in 1848. Declining a re-election, he returned to his legal practice. In 1857 he was elected a Judge of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, and then removed to Philadelphia, connecting himself with Calvary Presbyterian Church, of which he was immediately chosen an elder.

Judge Strong resigned his judicial commission October 1st, 1868, and commenced the practice of the law in Philadelphia. In January, 1870, he was appointed a Judge of the Supreme Court of the United States, when he removed to Washington. He continued in that Court until the close of the year 1880, faithfully meeting the demands of the position, and then resigned. He has been an elder of the New York Avenue Presbyterian Church, of Washington, from a short time after his removal there. He was for many years a corporate member of the A. B. C. F. M., and until the union of the two branches of the Presbyterian Church. He was a member of the committee that prepared and reported the plan of union. He has been many years a Vice-president of the American Bible Society and of the American Sunday School Union, and for some years has been President of the American Tract Society. He has been honored with the degree of LL.D. by his Alma Mater, Yale College, by Princeton, and by Lafayette. He was a member of the Second General Council of the Presbyterian Alliance, which convened at Philadelphia, September, 1880. He is highly esteemed for his dignity, uprightness, social qualities and intellectual ability, and in the judicatories of the Church and other spheres of Christian activity exerts a commanding influence.