Mrs. Submit R. Strong
Submitted Amy Schneider
January 19, 2001

TO INTERESTED PARTIES:  A photograph of an oil portrait of this woman may be available from [email protected]

From the Cincinnati Commercial on November 8, 1874, the following obituary:
     DEATH OF A PIONEER MOTHER........Yesterday afternoon, died, at her residence in Dayton, Kentucky, opposite this city, Mrs. Submit R. Strong, a matron well beloved in Cincinnati circles.  She was emphatically a lady of the olden time.  She was born on the 1st day of February, 1785 at Middletown, Connecticut.  Her parents were Captain Edward Miller and Elizabeth Rockwell. At this eventful period of the country, just emerging from the Revolutionary War, the officers who had been on Continental service were looking to a settlement in the great Northwest.  Captain Edward Miller was one of those who became identified with the settlement at Marietta, in the Ohio Company's purchase, in 1788.  Colonel Harmar, who had been the messenger to bear the "treaty of peace" to England, and to Ben Franklin, our Commissioner in France, on his return in 1784, was charged with raising a regiment to establish Western ports, and protect the frontiers--four companies from Pennsylvania, one from New Jersey, three from New York, and two from Connecticut.
     Of the Connecticut line was Captain David Strong, also of Middletown, Connecticut.  His company left West Point, where he was stationed, in November, 1785, and from December of that year--through different grades of advancement, until he became Colonel, and died at Wilinsonville, Mississippi Territory, in 1801, Colonel Strong held important positions at Fort Pitt, Fort McIntosh, and Fort Washington, Cincinnati, where he bought property. Captain Edward Miller was in command of a company in Wayne's army, and wrote and interesting diary of that important campaign.  Peace having resulted from that expedition, Captain Miller brought his family to Cincinnati on the first day of January, 1798. In December, 1799, he became a Mason in the old Lodge of this city.
     The aged matron whose death is now noted, has been identified with this city for seventy-six years.  Miss Submit Rockwell Miller was but fourteen years of age when her father commanded the post at Fort Washington, the military station at what is now Broadway and Third street, Cincinnati.
     Her destiny seems to have been lined with officers of the army, and her life was to be passed in forts and cantonments--the dates and names thereof affording a historical monument of the growth of these Western and Southern States.  Then, all northwest of the Ohio was a wilderness, and the wealth of the Nation and best blood of its brave soldiers were being expended to protect settlers from the fury of the Indians, who were aided by British mercenaries.
    On the 2nd of June, 1802, Miss Miller was married to Captain Elijah Strong, son of Colonel Strong, and the bridal trip was on horseback, the young officer proceeding to his appointment at Detroit, and at Fort Niagara.
     He was noted as a successful recruiting agent at Utica, New York, for the years 1803, 1804, and 1805, until his company was sent to New Orleans, the annexation of the Louisiana purchase---another historical event--requiring the services of Captain Strong.
     In 1806, her husband was at cantonment, in Bellefontaine, Upper Louisiana.  And this is historical of the first settlement of Missouri.
     Perhaps no lady was more intelligent and intimate with the affairs of camp life than Mrs. Strong.  She knew all the old army officers and grew up with the new and active race.  She was in the very arena where the subtle Aaron Burr was tampering with General Wilkinson.
    In 1807, her husband was transferred to Natchitoches, on the Red River, and this was to protect us from the Spanish.
    A Major of the Seventh Regiment, he was in charge at Fort Adams, in Mississippi, during the Burr excitement.
     In honored trust, Captain Strong was continued at Natchez, having the troops in cantonment, a few miles back from the bluff, and here was a new "Fort Washington", where he died on the 10th of June, 1810.
     Left alone with two children, it was an embarrassing condition for the widowed mother, but soon she found her way through the wilderness, in a gig, under the care of her brother, Judge Samuel R. Miller, a lawyer of Cincinnati.  Here she again made her home, depending on herself for awhile by keeping a select school, until a generous Government provided her with a pension, which has been her support until now.
     This venerable lady was of imposing presence, of refined manners, of a lofty spirit.  Her company was always secured, as her conversation was brilliant, her sallies lively, and her information reliable of public matters.  She was the mother of a former President of the City Council--D.E.A. Strong--who died many years since.  She was an honored member of the Cincinnati Pioneer Association, who will pay proper respect in funeral honors and obituary record.

>From the Cincinnati Commercial on November 10, 1874..........."STRONG--The funeral services of Mrs. Submit R. Strong will be held in St. John's Church, cor. Seventh and Plum sts., this day, November 10, at 1 1/2 P.M.  Friends of the family are invited."
 

"Died, at Wilkinsonville, on Wednesday, the 19th of August, after an illness of only 40 hours, as universally regretted as known, David Strong, Lt. Col. Commandant of the 2nd United States Regiment of Infantry."
 

The following information was also supplied from Amy Schneider:
"A copy of his funeral oration, given by Major Jonathan Williams, was printed in the same paper on 7 November 1801.  His death date is also given, along with details of his military service, in the Historical Register of the United States Army from its Organization    September 29, 1789 to September 29, 1889 by F. B. Heitman,  Clerk, Adjutant General's Office, War Department, 1890.  As to his burial location, it is given in A Story of Southern Illinois, Vol XXIV, no. 1, page 95 (William Nelson Moyers) as just outside the walls of the fort, and that the site was then occupied by Wilkinsonville.  His wife, Chloe Richmond and daughter Rebecca (see Vital Records of  Sharon, CT vol. LR7, page 299) and Rebecca's two husbands, Dr. Richard Allison and Rev. Samuel West, are all buried in Wesleyan Cemetery in Cincinnati.  I have  seen the graves, and took pictures of all of them, but three are now missing.  (Dr. Allison's has been cared for by the DAR)  However, Hamilton County Burial Records, Vol 1 Wesleyan Cemetery  1842--1971 gives the transcriptions and  proof for all of these relationships.
     Further proofs include Chloe Richmond Strong's obituary in the Western Spy on 13 Jan 1821, the records of Hamilton County Court of Common Pleas, 7 March 1822 (appointing Samuel West administrator of Chloe's estate), Samuel West's obituary in The Clermont Sun on 18 Oct 1879, Submit Rockwell Miller Strong's obituary on 8 November 1874 in the Cincinnati Commercial, and in Richard Allison--Surgeon to the Legion, a pamphlet published by the Society of Colonial Wars in the
State of Ohio, 1951.   And, most importantly, Grandpa said so!  Further information can be found in the Probate Records of Hamilton  County (Richard Allison's will), The History of Clermont County by Everts, 1880, the History of Clermont and Brown Counties, Vol. I by Byron Williams, and the
Strong Family Papers at the Cincinnati Historical Society Library."