William R. STRONG ²

  Research Notes:

William R. is tentatively identified as Martin and Margaret's son, even though he is not so listed by either Jim Rolff or Doris Collier, probably because he did not appear with their family in the 1850 census. I suspect given his age, he opted to remain in Missouri when the rest of the family moved to Texas. Certainly the fact he lived in Morgan County with the rest of Martin and Margaret's family and is buried with the rest of their family in Hopewell Cemetery, points to his belonging to their family. Moreover, without William, we can't come up with 10 children as stated in Margaret's obituary. William, having died in 1884, is consistent with him being one of their deceased children.

The fact he was born in Illinois per census records suggests he may be Hiram and Rebecca's son, since they are known to have had children born there. Except for James, the oldest, who was born in Tennessee, all of Martin and Margaret's other children were born in Missouri. But, William is a difficult fit for Hiram and Rebecca's family, both because of the 1840 census and because his year of birth coincides with known children of Hiram and Rebecca. Martin and Margaret's family, on the other hand, has a large gap between James and John. Moreover, as seen with the move to Texas, these two families seemed to have moved in tandem. Since the Moses Scrivner family moved from Smith County, Tennessee to Illinois, it is not unreasonable to assume that both Hiram and Martin and their respective Scrivner wives did so as well and then subsequently moved together to Cole County, Missouri.

William married Eliza P. GRACY on 7 Oct 1854 in Morgan County, Missouri.²