This gentleman, with whom we were well acquainted, was the second son of William L. Strong, a Presbyterian minister, who for more than twenty-five years was pastor of a church in Connecticut, and afterwards of a church in central New York. Newton was born October 17, 1809, at Somers, Lolland County, Connecticut, and there he spent his earlier years. He was prepared for admission to college by his father, and entered Yale as a freshman in 1827. He took a high position in his class, and maintained it until his graduation, in 1831. Not only did he rank high in general scholarship, but paid much attention to reading the English classics and to English composition, and early secured a reputation as a vigorous and elegant essayist. After his graduation he taught in a select school in Philadelphia one year, and in 1832 succeeded his elder brother, Hon. William Strong, now one of the justices of the Supreme Court of the United States, as a teacher at Burlington, New Jersey, in a classical and mathematical school of a high order. We served with this brother in the Thirty-first Congress. He was chairman of the Committee on Elections, and became distinguished as a legislator, and few men have since obtained more reputation as a jurist.
In 1834 Newton was appointed a tutor in Yale College, and continued so two years, when he resigned, and entered the law-office of his brother at Reading, Pennsylvania, where he completed his studies and was admitted to the bar. For a few months he remained at Easton, Pennsylvania, and then came West and located at Alton, Illinois, and entered into a partnership with his old college classmate, Junius Wall, Esq. They obtained a lucrative business, and Mr. Strong was elected to the Legislature.
In September, 1844, he married Miss Matilda R. Edwards, eldest daughter of Hon. Edgar Edwards, of Alton, with whom he lived happily until her death in February, 1851.
In 1847, at the earnest solicitation of his brother William, he removed to Reading, Pennsylvania, and took charge of the business of his brother, who had been elected to Congress.
In 1851 he came West again and settled in St. Louis. His reputation acquired in Illinois followed him to St. Louis, and secured for him a commanding position at that bar. In 1853 he formed a partnership with his cousin, George P. Strong, Esq., who is well known as an able lawyer, and the firm did a very large business. The loss of his wife, in 1851, threw a cloud of sorrow and disappointment over his remaining years, and, having no children to stimulate him to further professional exertion, he devoted the remainder of his life to the cultivation and indulgence of his taste for general literature. He was a great reader and a deep thinker, and whatever subject engaged his attention was thoroughly mastered. He was a thorough-read lawyer, and his tastes and habits fitted him particularly for the discussion of legal questions before an appellate tribunal. We heard him make several arguments in our Supreme Court which elicited much praise from both bench and bar. He had an easy and pleasant delivery, and spoke with that confidence which only a thorough knowledge of his subject could inspire. Few men possessed a more thorough comprehension of the political events which were occurring in his time, and when the Rebellion broke out he took an open and decided stand for the Union. We often met him in a social way, and found him a most agreeable and entertaining gentleman.
After the close of the war his health began to give way, and in August, 1866, he closed his earthly career in the fifty-seventh year of his age. His remains were taken to Reading, Pennsylvania, where they repose by the side of his wife.
W.V.N. Bay. Reminiscences of the Bench and Bar of Missouri. St. Louis: F.H. Thomas & Company, 1878, pp. 559-560.
Contributed by: Nancy.