Male

May 20, 1810

July 20, 1894

Rutland, VT

Madison, WI
Mineral Point, WI

Caroline Green Strong (July 31, 1832)

Moses McCure Strong was the son of Moses and Lucy Maria (Smith) Strong. He attended Middlebury and Dartmouth prior to attending the Law School. He returned to Rutland, VT to begin a career as a lawyer after passing the bar in 1831. In 1836, Strong moved his family to the newly opened territiory of Wisconsin where he became greatly involved in the development of that area.

A Democrat, he served by appointment from President Martin Van Buren as U.S. District Attorney for the Territory of Wisconsin from 1838 to 1841 and from 1841 to 1846 was a prominent member of the upper house of Wisconsin's territorial legislature. Strong was a delegate to the first state constitutional convention in 1846 and in 1847 was an unsuccessful candidate for territorial delegate to Congress on the Democratic ...ticket. He was a state assemblyman in 1850 and 1857 and for several years was recognized as one of the most important Democratic politicians in western Wisconsin.

An active speculator and promoter during the era preceding the Civil War, Strong, despite his optimism, ambition and native intelligence, never achieved the politcal power and monetary fortune which he south. Prone to short cuts and to gambling, both in business and politics, Strong speculatetd heavily in lead mining ventures in Iowa and Layfayette counties. He was active in many early railroad schemes, and with Byron Kilbourn was one of the principal promoters of the La Crosse and Milwaukee Rail Roads.

In 1856 he acted as Kilbourn's agent in delivering bribes to state legislators in behalf of a land-grant to that line, and in 1858 when the bribary charges were investigated, Strong's political fortunes suffered a sharp decline. HIs political eclipse was augmented by the collapse of his speculative financial ventures during the panic of 1857, and increased with his severe criticism of the Lincoln administration during the Civil War.

Returning to his law practice in Mineral Point, WI, Strong served as president of the state bar association from 1878 to 1893, was a member of the state board of bar examiners from 1885 to 1894, and from 1871 until his death was vice-president of the State Historical Society. He was the author of A History of the Territory of Wisconsin as well as several other articles and memoirs of early Wisconsin history.

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1830

Attended Grammar School in Castleton, VT and attended Middlebury College for several years but left in 1828 without graduating. He then received his degree from Dartmouth College in 1829.

Lawyer; Business; Political Office

1831

Surveyor of land west of the Mississippi River 1837
U.S. Attorney for the WI Territory (WI Territory) 1838-1841

State Representative (WI) 1850

Speaker of the Wisconsin State Assembly. Member of the Wisconsin Territorial Council from 1842 through 1847. Served in the WI Constitutional Convention in 1846.

Catalogue of the Litchfield Law School (Hartford, CT: Press of Case, Tiffany and Company, 1848), 24.

Berryman, John R. History of the Bench and Bar Of Wisconsin. H.C. Cooper, 1898.

Chapman, Rev. George T. Sketches Alumni Dartmouth College. Cambridge: Riverside Press, 1867.