Here are pho­tos from the Annual Reunion and Meet­ing in San Anto­nio, Texas,  August 1–3 at the Crock­ett Hotel.

Click on the indi­vid­ual photo, to see the photo descriptions.

[Show as slideshow]

A pic­nic at Wild­wood on White Bear Lake, August 1894. (Photo cour­tesy of the Min­nesota His­tor­i­cal Society)

2013 Reunion Reg­is­tra­tion — Click here for the reg­is­tra­tion form (PDF)

Join us in White Bear Lake, Min­nesota for the 2013 Strong Fam­ily Reunion — August 9–10, 2013!

White Bear Lake

Our spe­cial speaker after din­ner Fri­day will be Sara Markoe Han­son, Exec­u­tive Direc­tor of the White Bear Lake His­tor­i­cal Soci­ety. She will talk about the col­or­ful Resort and Gang­ster eras.

Fri­day din­ner is at the White Bear Yacht Club, located on White Bear Lake. Boat rides will be avail­able after the speaker.

Sat­ur­day includes a Sit-Down Plated Din­ner at the Dove Hill Man­sion in the his­toric Hill Dis­trict of Sum­mit Avenue, St. Paul, Min­nesota. There will be musi­cal accom­pa­ni­ment through­out the evening and a spe­cial speaker to talk about the his­tory of St. Paul and F. Scott Fitzgerald.

A Look at Sum­mit Avenue

Dove Hill Man­sion in 2013

“Well known as the most pres­ti­gious and beau­ti­ful street in the Twin Cities and one of the longest urban boule­vards in the United States, Sum­mit Avenue runs past the opu­lent man­sion of rail­road tycoon James J. Hill, an early home of F. Scott Fitzger­ald, and res­i­dences designed by renowned archi­tect Cass Gilbert.” — from the descrip­tion for the book, St. Paul’s His­toric Sum­mit Avenue.

Rail­road tycoon James J. Hill built the first and largest of the Sum­mit Hill Man­sions. He later built a sec­ond man­sion next to the first, and pre­sented it to his son Louis Hill as a wed­ding present. The Louis Hill man­sion has since been pri­vately restored, and is the home of our Strong cousins the Nichol­sons. The man­sion is now named Dove Hill, and will be our home for the Sat­ur­day por­tion of the Strong Fam­ily Reunion.

Todd Nichol­son and fam­ily are host­ing our 2013 Strong Fam­ily Reunion in White Bear Lake Min­nesota and nearby St. Paul Minnesota.

St. Paul’s His­toric Sum­mit Avenue (from the book cover)

Reunion Details

Join us in White Bear Lake, Min­nesota for the 2013 Strong Fam­ily Reunion, August 9–10, 2013

White Bear Coun­try Inn
4940 North High­way 61
White Bear Lake, MN (651) 429‑5393

We have 10 guest rooms reserved and guar­an­teed at a rate of $117.78/night (includ­ing tax) for two Queen beds or King bed with pull-out Sofa Sleeper. This rate is guar­an­teed if reser­va­tions are made by July 8, 2013 (men­tion Strong Fam­ily Reunion). The inn offers a free con­ti­nen­tal hot/cold break­fast and a full ser­vice restau­rant for lunch and din­ner. Other ameni­ties include indoor pool and whirlpool, game room and exer­cise room. Con­tinue read­ing →

Here are pho­tos from the Pre­sen­ta­tions and Annual Ban­quet in San­dusky Ohio, August 10–11 at the Great Wolf Lodge.

Click on [View with PicLens], or on the indi­vid­ual photo, to see the photo descriptions.

[Show as slideshow]

Here is a group photo from August 2007, cour­tesy of Ann Hecathorn.

Come to Stur­bridge, Mass­a­chu­setts
for the 35^th Annual
Strong Fam­ily Reunion

Fri­day, August 13 to Sun­day, August 15, 2010

366 Main St., Route 20, Stur­bridge, MA 01566

(508) 347‑7393, www.sturbridgehosthotel.com

Guest rooms are $109.00/night (plus 11.7% taxes) for either sin­gle or double,

Add $10 for each extra per­son (3^rd $119, 4^th $129), Chil­dren under 18 stay free with adults.

This rate is guar­an­teed if reser­va­tions are made by July 20, 2010 (tell them you are with SFAA).

The Host Hotel offers a sandy beach on its 9 acres of lake­side grounds, pad­dle­boats for rent, beach vol­ley­ball, horseshoes,

minia­ture golf, an arcade/game room, a heated indoor swim­ming pool and hot tub, a fit­ness cen­ter, and sev­eral restau­rants

Stur­bridge is located in cen­tral Mass. on the Conn. line at the cross­roads of the Mass. Turn­pike (Rt. 90) and Rt. 84 and Rt. 20. You will be about a one-hour drive from Boston, Prov­i­dence, Hart­ford, Wind­sor, Spring­field and Northamp­ton (the bur­ial place of John Strong). If you need to fly here, Bradley Air­port (Hartford/Springfield) is in Wind­sor, Logan Air­port is in Boston and T.F. Green Air­port is near Prov­i­dence, all about one hour away. Traf­fic in Boston and Prov­i­dence tends to be heavy. Bradley is eas­ier dri­ving, but it depends on where and how you want to spend your time while you are vis­it­ing Sturbridge.

Sched­ule for the Weekend:

Fri­day, August 13 at 12:00 noon – Reg­is­tra­tion in the Dud­ley Room (our hos­pi­tal­ity room for the weekend)

Reg­is­tra­tion, to cover hos­pi­tal­ity room and speaker’s fee: ______Adults x $18.00 _________

Con­tact Name: ______________________________________________________________

Address: ____________________________________________________________________

City: _________________________________________State _____________Zip__________

Phone: ___________________________email: _____________________________________

Names as they should appear on Name Badges: _____________________________________

Fri­day at 5:30 p.m. – Lake­side Cook­out. Ham­burg­ers, hot dogs, bar­be­cue chicken, corn on the cob, var­i­ous sal­ads, chips, water­melon, brown­ies, lemon­ade, iced tea ______Adults x $27.78 ea. ________

Fri­day at 7:30 p.m. – SFAA Director’s meet­ing in the Oxford Room.

Sat­ur­day, August 14 at 8:00 a.m. — Cof­fee and pas­tries in the Dud­ley Room (Reg­is­tra­tion con­tin­ues). Sat­ur­day at 3:00 p.m. – Annual Mem­bers’ Meet­ing in the Junior Ball­room fol­lowed by pho­tos of the Strong fam­ily group mem­bers and then dinner.

Sat­ur­day at 6:00 p.m. – Buf­fet Din­ner, An Ital­ian Feast: Cae­sar Salad, Moz­zarella Caprise, Antipasto, Chicken Saltim­bocca, Had­dock Bella Vista, Penne Flo­ren­tine, Ital­ian Squash Med­ley, Bread­sticks, Focac­cia, Tiramisu, Can­noli, Ital­ian Cook­ies, Cof­fee and Tea ________Adults x $35.35 ea. _________

Total Cost (includes 14% tip, 4% house charge, 2% meals tax, 6.25% sales tax) $__________

After din­ner, Tom Kelle­her, Cura­tor of His­toric Trades, Mills and Mechan­i­cal Arts at Old Stur­bridge Vil­lage will speak about “The His­tory of Base­ball Before 1860, Dou­ble­day Didn’t Do It” and he’ll also explain how Tan­ner­ies worked (John Strong was a tan­ner) and infor­ma­tion on N.E. shoe factories.

Sun­day, August 15 at 8:00 a.m. – Cof­fee and pas­tries in the Dud­ley Room. Attend a church ser­vice or mass at an area church. St. Anne’s Church and Shrine are nearby with masses at 10 a.m., 12 noon and 6 p.m. in an out­door pavil­ion in sum­mer. They have a 10-acre, wooded path with the ‘Sta­tions of the Cross’ that is believed to have heal­ing pow­ers. The Tav­ern at Old Stur­bridge Vil­lage offers a deli­cious buf­fet, 10 – 2 p.m.

At 12:30 p.m., any­one who would like a tour of Old Stur­bridge Vil­lage can meet me in the gar­den area just out­side the ticket office. (Spe­cial admis­sion $15 adults, $7 chil­dren 4–17, men­tion SFAA).

If you plan to attend the SFAA reunion, please send a check or money order to cover the costs of the meal/meals and reg­is­tra­tion to: Jean Solaroli, SFAA, 15 Cove Drive, Stur­bridge, MA 01566.

If you have any ques­tions or con­cerns, call Jean at 508–347-9897 or email Solaroli@aol.com.

Places of Inter­est In and Around Sturbridge

Stur­bridge Host Hotel Restau­rants: The Green­house Restau­rant offers a week­end break­fast buf­fet. The VIP’s Lounge offers refresh­ing bev­er­ages, light fare and tasty appe­tiz­ers. The Oxhead Tav­ern, an his­toric land­mark built in 1820, is just next door and offers deli­cious New Eng­land lunches and dinners.

List­ing of Other Stur­bridge Area Restau­rants – Within close walk­ing dis­tance of the Host Hotel are: Burger King, McDon­alds, Pic­cadilly Pub, George Pizza, B.T.’s Smoke­house, Friendly Ice Cream, The Thai Place, Cedar Street Restau­rant and 530 Main Steak House. Within a short drive are: Wendy’s, Sub­way, Dunkin’ Donuts, Cracker Bar­rel, Applebee’s, Pizze­ria Uno’s, The Pub­lick House His­toric Inn, Kaizen Sushi Bar & Grill, Kahula Poly­ne­sian Restau­rant, Ravezzi’s Ital­ian Restau­rant, Playa Del Car­men Mex­i­can Restau­rant, Vienna Restau­rant, and Zorba’s Greek Restaurant.

Of Inter­est in Stur­bridge – Old Stur­bridge Vil­lage, across from the Host Hotel, is a 200-acre, 1830’s Liv­ing His­tory Museum, spe­cial admis­sion $15 adults, $7 chil­dren 4–17 (men­tion SFAA). As a tour guide at OSV, I will offer a tour on Sun­day after­noon start­ing at 12:30, meet­ing in the gar­den area just out­side the ticket office.

If you like beer, Hyland Orchard & Brew­ery, 195 Arnold Rd., offers a wide selec­tion of micro-brewed beers, plus a free pet­ting zoo and children’s play area.

His­tor­i­cal and Other Places of Inter­est within short dri­ving dis­tances – Because Stur­bridge is located at the cross­roads of Rt. 84 and the Mass. Turn­pike (Rt. 90) in cen­tral Mass­a­chu­setts on the Con­necti­cut state line, you are able to drive to many New Eng­land cities in about an hour or so.

Boston – Drive east on the Mass. Turn­pike to visit many his­toric areas in Boston. The Free­dom Trail is a 2.5-mile walk­ing tour of 16 sites start­ing at the Boston Com­mon, then walk by the Gra­nary Bury­ing Ground with graves of Sam Adam, John Han­cock, Paul Revere. Walk on to Faneuil Hall that is filled with shops and the Old State House, up to the North End by Paul Revere’s house and the Old North Church and con­tinue on to Old Iron­sides. Boston has many muse­ums: Museum of Sci­ence & Hay­den Plan­e­tar­ium, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston Children’s Museum, Isabella Stew­art Gard­ner Museum, Peabody Arche­ol­ogy Museum, N.E. Aquar­ium and the JFK Library. (For more info: http://www.starthereboston.com/Museums.html) Want to see where the Pil­grims landed and how they lived, visit Plimoth Plan­ta­tion, Ply­mouth, MA. (www.plimoth.org/).

West of Stur­bridge – Head­ing West on the Mass Pike to Rt. 291 to Spring­field, you’ll find the birth­place of bas­ket­ball at the Nai­smith Memo­r­ial Bas­ket­ball Hall of Fame (www.hoophall.com). If you’re look­ing for excite­ment head to Six Flags of New Eng­land with thrilling roller coast­ers and a water park (www.sixflags.com).

Prov­i­dence – Drive South on Rt. 146 to see the Museum of Nat­ural His­tory and Cor­mack Plan­e­tar­ium, shows on week­ends at 2 p.m. which is located in Roger Williams Park along with the Roger Williams Zoo, open daily 9–4. At the Culi­nary Arts Museum of John­son and Wales Uni­ver­sity, Tues.- Sun. 10–5, see the Din­ner at the White House exhibit or the 4,000 sq. ft. diner exhibit. There are art muse­ums at RI School of Design and Brown Uni­ver­sity. Visit the Slater Mill His­toric Site, in nearby Paw­tucket, open Sat. & Sun. 11–3, the birth­place of Amer­i­can indus­try with an authen­tic 19^th cen­tury machine shop, an 8-ton work­ing water wheel with reg­u­lar demon­stra­tions. Or, travel father south to New­port, RI, to see the mag­nif­i­cent New­port Man­sions. (Go here for more info: http://www.newportmansions.org/) Mis­quam­i­cut Beach in West­erly, RI is one of the nicest ones in RI, but you could travel to Cape Cod for lots of beaches if you have the time.

Hart­ford – Head south on Rt. 84 to Har­riet Beecher Stowe Cen­ter (www.harrietbeecherstowecenter.org) a kin who was fea­tured in the SFAA Nov. 2008 newslet­ter. It’s next door to the Mark Twain brick Vic­to­rian house that fea­tures many pieces of Tiffany stained glass (www.marktwainhouse.org). Just over the line into West Hart­ford is Eliz­a­beth Park, the old­est rose gar­den in Amer­ica with a won­der­ful café for lunch.

Wind­sor, CT - Up the Conn. River is the Wind­sor His­tor­i­cal Soci­ety on the site where Return Strong took over his father John Strong’s orig­i­nal tan­nery. They also have the Lt. Wal­ter Fyler House (1640) and the Dr. Hezekiah Chaf­fee House (1765), as well as a library with genealog­i­cal and his­tor­i­cal research.

Coven­try, CT — About 30 min­utes down Rt. 84, you’ll find the Strong-Porter Museum and the Nathan Hale Home­stead. Eliz­a­beth Strong mar­ried Richard Hale (Nathan’s father).

Come to Dixon, Illi­nois Sun­day, August 2, and Mon­day, August 3, for the 2009 Strong reunion!!

We are stay­ing at the Qual­ity Inn and Com­fort Inn, located near the inter­sec­tion of I-88  & Il Rt. 26  at the south end of Dixon, IL    The motels are mid­way between Chicago and the Quad cities, and about  45 miles south of Rock­ford, IL.

The two motels are under one roof and share two pools and ban­quet rooms.  The Qual­ity Inn with an entrance at the east end of the build­ing serves a full hot break­fast.  The Com­fort Inn with the entrance on the west end of the build­ing has a deluxe con­ti­nen­tal break­fast fea­tur­ing waf­fles.  The motels are located beside a large Wal­Mart and small strip mall.

The SFAA has a block of rooms reserved at both motels.

The Qual­ity Inn:

• 815–288-2001
• Room rate — $93.46 plus tax

Com­fort Inn:

• 815–284-0500
• Room rate — $84.96 plus tax

The motel will hold the rooms for the SFAA until July 2. Con­tact the Qual­ity Inn and Com­fort Inn directly and men­tion SFAA.  A credit card will hold the room. You can can­cel with no charge until  4 p.m. of the day of arrival. Please reg­is­ter early to assist us in our planning.

Dixon, in Lee Co., IL, is the boy­hood home of Ronald Rea­gan.  His home is open for tours daily.  It is also the home of the Wal­green fam­ily. Our ban­quet speaker will be Paul Lan­gan, a retired psy­chol­ogy pro­fes­sor with an inter­est in Dixon area his­tory.  His topic will be the founders of the Wal­green Drug Store chain.  More infor­ma­tion on area points of inter­est, din­ing and shop­ping will be avail­able in the SFAA hos­pi­tal­ity room located across from the Com­fort Inn reg­is­tra­tion desk.

A spe­cial guest at the Strong­hold Cas­tle tour on August 3 will be W. Ansel Strong III.  He, and pos­si­bly some of his cousins, will share sto­ries of  his grand­fa­ther, Wal­ter A. Strong, who was a Chicago news­pa­per­man and builder of Strong­hold Cas­tle. The Wal­ter A. Strong fam­ily descends from Elder John Strong’s son John Strong. More infor­ma­tion about the cas­tle and adjoin­ing prop­erty is found at http://www.strongholdcenter.org/

Reg­is­tra­tion for the SFAA reunion in Dixon, Illi­nois   August 2 & 3, 2009

Main Con­tact Name______________________________________________________________

Address_______________________________________________________________________

City__________________________________  State ________________ Zip_______________

Phone  ________________________       email __________________________________

Names as they should appear on the Name Badges_______________________________________

Reg­is­tra­tion fee for the 34th SFAA reunion in Dixon, IL

Adults           $15                    _____adults X  $15=___________

Ban­quet meal                          _______adults X  $20=_____________

Mon­day, August 3

_______children under age 8  X  $10=_____________

Sun­day late after­noon at the Low­ell Park shel­ter north of Dixon

oven fried chicken, potato salad, fruit bowl, Del Monte bicol­ored sweet corn, dessert and iced tea or pink rasp­berry lemonade

Get Acquainted catered pic­nic       _____adults X $8=______________

_____   chil­dren under 8 X $8=______________
(Update: chil­dren same price. Our caterer was unable to get us the discount.)

Strong­hold Cas­tle tour          num­ber of peo­ple   X $3=______________

Tour­ing inside the cas­tle involves many steep steps.  It is NOT hand­i­capped acces­si­ble.  Any­one may walk around the grounds with­out a charge. W. Ansel Strong III’s pre­sen­ta­tion about his fam­ily and life at the cas­tle will be in the cafe­te­ria at 11 a.m., fol­low­ing the 10 a.m. tour. That is open to all of the SFAA.  It isn’t nec­es­sary to have also toured the castle.

Lunch in the Strong­hold Pres­by­ter­ian Con­fer­ence Cen­ter cafe­te­ria  on August 3

________number of peo­ple X $8.25=_____________

Make check or Money order payable to SFAA Reunion 2009 and Send reg­is­tra­tion to:

Mrs. Ann Hecathorn
P.O. Box 95
Ear­lville, Illi­nois 60518

Ques­tions?  s.hecathorn@verizon.net