Strong Family Association of America has been in existence for many years, but I joined just recently, Its 2013 annual meeting was hosted by my first cousins once removed,Todd, Dick and Ford Nicholson in White Bear Lake and St. Paul, MN . We arranged our summer itinerary so we could attend. We parked the RV at an Elks Lodge in Stillwater MN, an easy commute to the venues for the meetings. The Friday evening function at the White Bear Yacht Club was attended by 27 and the Saturday dinner by over 30 at Dove Hill Mansion in St. Paul. It was great to socialize with other descendents of Elder John Strong who migrated to America in 1836.
The history of the mansion is interesting and uplifting. The mansion was built by railroad tycoon James J. Hill, president of the Great Northern Railroad, as a wedding present to his son Louis in 1903. An addition was built on its front 1913. When Dick and Nancy Nicholson bought it, perhaps 15 years ago, there was no furniture and the home and it had suffered deferred maintenance for many years. Since then, they have completely restored the house including furnishing it with period furniture putting up period wallpaper, cleaning and resealing all of the woodwork, and doing everything necessary to restore it to its former grandeur. They installed a kitchen on the first floor for the family and completely restored the large kitchen in the basement for use by caterers, complete with a restored dumb waiter which carries food, etc. to the second floor ballroom which they use for large family parties and, more often, are loaned, without charge, to various non-profit organizations for fund raising dinners.
Dick and Nancy Nicholson live in the less formal back of the house, which has four floors and is serviced by a large elevator. This includes a complete swimming pool and exercise area in the basement (original to the house) along with the caterer’s kitchen and a large storage area.
The business meeting was held in the large dining room. The historian/webmaster, Ed Barnard, fourth from the left, asked for help in digitizing lots of data about the Strong family in the 24 shelf-feet of archive files he has.
At the head of the table were the secretary, Helen Stoutnar and President, Bob Cihla. The next gentleman is a member of the board of directors. Interestingly, just four of us at the business meeting had the surname Strong!
Here are most of the members who attended the Saturday night dinner at Dove Hill Mansion.
Eighteen in attendance were descended from Elder John’s son Ebenezer or were married to Ebenezer's descendents. My first cousin, Abby Jane Nicholson Hodges, is in the center of the first row. She and I were the oldest ones there descended from Elder John and son Ebenezer.
These attendees descended from another son, Jedediah, if memory serves me.
We had a nice dinner in the ballroom. The speaker is third from the left on the subject of the mansions along St. Paul’s Summit Avenue and why they survived.
Here is the youth table, all Hodges and Nicholsons.
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