The National Magazine, Vol. XV, No. 1, November 1891

by Various

Col. William L. Strong—One of the First Vice-Presidents of the Ohio Society.

In the sketches of the two distinguished Ohioans which accompany this, the law has been so well represented that one might imagine that the chief purpose of Ohio in the metropolis was to interpret the law, and see that equal justice was done between man and man; but from that which follows, it will be seen that the mission of the Buckeye in New York, is as varied as his numbers are many, and that in the walks of business and financial operation, he has won honor for his mother-state, and the evidences of deserved success for himself. And while engaged in the cares of business, he has not forgotten to fulfill all the demands of good citizenship, nor to preserve the memory of the State he has left, by doing all that lies in his power to perpetuate her memory loyally and lovingly in the one of his adoption.

Those who have attended the meetings of the Ohio Society with any degree of regularity, have not failed to notice that the genial presiding officer, Gen. Swayne, whose genius for his position is universally recognized is never so well satisfied as when he can so twist or change the current of business as to bring upon the floor a gentleman who always talks entertainingly, and whose appearance and speech justify the efforts of the presiding officer to “draw him out.” Col. William L. Strong has been so many years in New York, that people generally suppose him to be of New York origin; he has travelled the world so much, that at times it is hard to tell from what section he does hail; but when he has been brought before the Society upon one of the occasions above referred to, it takes no skill and no endeavor to tell that he was an Ohio man in the beginning, and that many of the tendrils of his affection still cling to the State in which his youth was spent, and to which he turns with a loyal devotion, whenever the occasion renews the scenes of memory, and the other sons of Ohio about him are recalling with varied emotions the things of the vanished past.

Mr. Strong came to New York when quite young in years, but equipped with all the elements needed for business success. He was born in Richland County, Ohio, on the 22d of March, 1827, and spent his boyhood among the Loudinville hills. At the age of sixteen he went to Wooster, Ohio, and spent two years with the firm of Lake & Jones, a large retail dry goods house, and from thence to Mansfield, Ohio, where he continued in the dry goods business until he came to this city, arriving here on the 31st of December, 1853.

When the young Buckeye reached the great city, he came with a purpose of making the best use of all the possibilities which might present themselves. He commenced life here as a salesman in the well-known dry goods house of L. O. Wilson & Co., at that time one of the largest and most prominent of the wholesale houses of the United States. In the panic of 1857 the firm suspended, but Mr. Strong continued in its service until 1858, when he went into the dry goods commission business, entering the firm of Farnham, Dale & Co., which was one of the prominent firms of New York at that time. In the subsequent changes of affairs, it was succeeded by Farnham, Sutton & Co., and afterwards by Sutton, Smith & Co. This last named firm was dissolved and retired from business in December, 1869, and on January 1, 1870, the firm of W. L. Strong & Co. was organized, and succeeded to the business.

The advance of Mr. Strong in his chosen line, had been as rapid as his wonderful success in these later years, has been deserved. He had entered upon the work with a determination to succeed, and nothing in the line of hard work or close application was allowed to stand in the way. He had made the interests of his employers his own; he had studied all the needs and possibilities of the situation, and had laid a sure foundation for future success. He had learned the country from one end to the other, and his business acquaintances were to be found in every quarter. It hardly needs to be added that when the new firm of which he was the head, opened its doors for business, it had already a clientage of the most valuable sort, and that its prominent place among the great dry goods houses of America, was already assured.

Col. Strong has been a faithful servant of the house from the beginning; he has done his work as if the whole load fell upon him, and he has never asked anyone to carry any share that properly belonged to himself. The house has ever been recognized as one of the solid institutions of New York. It has made but one removal since its organization, beginning business on the corner of Church and Leonard streets, and moving several years later to the spacious double store which it still occupies, in the center of the dry goods district at Nos. 75 and 77 Worth street.

Some of the qualities that have made his firm what it is to-day, are suggested in the above. Mr. Strong is a man of decided views, and great force of character, and at the same time one of the most approachable and genial men in the business. His good nature and open-handed liberality are widely felt and known, and no man has a wider circle of personal and business friends. His abilities as a business man and financier are of the highest order, and although strongly marked by conservatism and caution, are nevertheless, sufficiently progressive for even this day of commercial activity.

But while Col. Strong has given the greater share of his time and care to the interests of the firm of which he is the head, he has found time to make his energy and capital effective in various other directions. He was for years a director of the Central National Bank, and for three years past has been its president; is president of the Homer Lee Bank Note Company; was president of the Brush Electric Light Company of New York for several years; is president of the Griswold Worsted Company, a large corporation engaged in the manufacture of silk and worsted materials. He is also a director in the Erie Railroad Company; a director in the New York Life Insurance Company, Mercantile Trust Company, and Hanover Fire Insurance Company. He is also vice-president of the New York Security and Trust Company; is a director in the newly formed Plaza Bank, and has been closely connected with other important commercial and financial enterprises not necessary to mention in detail here.

In the lines of political duty, social demands, and especially in connection with such enterprises as have had some object of public benefit in view, Col. Strong has ever been an active factor. He is of the Republican faith, and has long been recognized as one of the Republican leaders of New York. He has been importuned many times to be a candidate for public office, but has been too closely interested in his business to take a hand in the practical manipulation of politics upon his own account, content to do a citizen’s duty, and to remain in private life. But he has done that duty whenever occasion offered. He is a member of the Union League, and president of the Business Men’s Republican Association, and has done much to make that one of the most efficient and useful political associations of the country. He has ever taken a deep interest in the Ohio Society, and is at present its first vice-president, and has held that office from the date of its organization.