GEORGE W. STRAIN. The locality of Sand Flat, in the west side of Wise county, received, among its early settlers, William J. Strain, father of the subject of this notice, who emigrated hither from Cass county, Iowa, in 1878. With the exception of a few years passed in Chautauqua county, Kansas, where he died in 1882, the family have resided in, and been modest but active promoters of the internal improvement of, the county and several of its members are still represented here.
George W. Strain was born in Cass county, Iowa, May 19, 1866. His father settled there at an early date from near Cincinnati, Ohio, where his birth occurred in 1817. The latter was a son of Samuel Strain, a farmer who was three times married and reared a family by each wife and who passed away where he spent his active life.
William J. Strain married Margaret A. Smith, who was permitted to watch over and guide her family until 1901, when she passed away on her Sand Flat farm at the age of fifty-nine years. The issue of their union were: George W., of this review; Mary E. and Sarah, twins, the former the wife of James Donohoo, of Roger Mills county, Oklahoma, and the latter married George Morrow and died in Wise county; Cyrus B., of Sand Flat; Ada E., wife of John Johns; and Alma, wife of John W. Brazier, of Wise county.
In the Sand Flat neighborhood of Wise county George W. Strain grew up and was educated limitedly in the country schools. In December, 1887, he married Catherine, a daughter of C. Bock, a resident farmer of Wise county and originally from Texas county, Missouri. For a time after his marriage Mr. Strain lived on a rented farm in his home neighborhood and when he ventured to buy land it was near Crafton, in Jack county, where he spent four years. On selling out, and after a brief stop on an inspection of the Indian Territory country, he settled on the Chico and Crafton road, three miles west of the former place, where he purchased one hundred and thirty-five acres on the Comstock survey. For four years he has been occupied with the improvement and cultivation of his farm, rebuilding his residence after having it torn away by a cyclone in 1904 and adding other and new buildings as more accommodations are needed for housing the products of his farm.
Mr. and Mrs. Strain’s family consists of the children: Earnest, Jesse, Edna, Raymond and Joseph. Mr. Strain is a Republican in politics but is passive and without political ambition.
Source: B. B. Paddock, History and Biographical Record of North and West Texas (Chicago: Lewis Publishing Co., 1906), Vol. II, p. 377.