Rev. Joseph Strong House (1778)

The house at 30 Huntington Lane in Norwich was built in 1778 for Reverend Joseph Strong (1753-1834). As related in the History of Norwich (1874), by Frances Manwaring Caulkins:

On the 18th of March, 1778, Mr. Joseph Strong was ordained as colleague pastor with Dr. [Benjamin] Lord [of the First Congregational Church]. The audience, gathered from all parts of the county, was unexampled in point of numbers, and the services were unusually solemn. Dr. Lord was eighty-four years of age, venerated and beloved by all, but small and frail in appearance, while his colleague, in the full glow of youth and health, large and stoutly built, stood over him like a sheltering oak. [. . .]

Mr. Strong was the son of the Rev. Nathan Strong of Coventry. By his mother’s side, he was descended from the Williams family, who were taken captives by the Indians at Deerfield, in the night of Feb. 28, 1704. The general circumstances of this tragedy are well known. The two little daughters of Mr. Williams who went into captivity with their father were named Eunice and Esther. The former was never redeemed, but being adopted into the family of a chief, she became attached to the Indian manners and customs, refused to return to her relatives, embraced the Roman Catholic religion, and married a chief named Roger Toroso, who resided at St. Johns, twenty miles from Montreal. Esther was ransomed and returned home with her father. She married the Rev. Mr. Meachum of Coventry, and one of her daughters became the wife of the Rev. Nathan Strong, who was ordained pastor of a Second Congregational Church in Coventry, in 1745, and was the father of the Rev. Nathan Strong, D. D., of Hartford, and the Rev. Joseph Strong, D. D., of Norwich. At the ordination of the latter, the sermon was preached by his brother, and the charge given by his father. [. . .]

Dr. Strong in person was above the middle size and stature, and he had a calm dignity of address which impressed every one with respect. This dignity, however, was blended with great kindness and courtesy, and his manners, far from inspiring awe, were gentle and attractive. In his latter years especially, it was delightful to listen to his conversation, flowing as it did in an easy, graceful stream, enlivened with anecdotes and enriched with sketches of character, curious incidents, and all the varied stores collected by an observant mind through long years of experience.

Rev. Strong married Mary Huntington. Their house was built on land her father, Jabez Huntington, had acquired from Peter Morgan. As related in Old Houses of the Antient Town of Norwich (1895), by Mary Elizabeth Perkins:

Mrs. Strong received from her father a large amount of additional land, both in 1784 and at his death in 1786, and Dr. Strong also bought adjoining land, so that their domain covered many acres, but the house site was on the Morgan land. We do not know when the Morgan house disappeared. After the death of Rev. Joseph Strong, the homestead was inherited by his son, Henry Strong [who became a lawyer], and is now in the possession of the latter’s daughter, Mary, wife of the late Dr. Daniel Gulliver.