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Over 50 years of research into the Stratton, Schneider, King, and allied families—from colonial Massachusetts to Indiana and beyond. Built by Bill & Karen Stratton.
Strattons of Massachusetts Bay
Running Through the Sands of Time
Thirty-five pieces — biographies, historical fiction, essays, and memoir — arranged in the order the family lived them. Every story is grounded in documented research. Where imagination fills a gap, it says so.
Historical Fiction Biography Essay Memoir Collection
From the first Stratton name in a 1148 document through nine centuries of English history to the yeoman who watched the Armada beacons burn from his yard in 1588 and sent his son to Bedfordshire — starting the chain that reached America.
John moves from Berkshire to Bedfordshire, farms, raises four sons, and distributes his world in a will dated June 3, 1627 — the oldest documentary link between this family and the Atlantic crossing. The chapter ends at St. Mary the Virgin, Podington.
Samuel crosses alone in 1633 to scout the land and secure a Watertown lot. Fourteen years later, with England at war and the colony established, he brings the family for good. The long line begins its American chapter.
The full story of the colony from the Winthrop Fleet to the last shots of the Revolution, with Samuel Stratton Sr., Francis Stratton, and John Stratton woven through every generation. Literary history in the tradition of McCullough.
The same colonial story told in scenes: Samuel crossing alone in 1633, Alice arriving fourteen years later, the witch trial, Francis at Meriam's Corner, an old soldier marching north to stand in his son's place at Saratoga. A novel in the manner of John Jakes.
Francis answered the Lexington Alarm at fifty-eight. Two years later, when his son John didn't answer the Saratoga muster, Francis took a reduction to private and marched north in his place. Both fought for the republic; one carried the family name forward to Indiana.
A historical novelette tracing Francis Joel Stratton from driving mules on the Erie Canal to Geneva Medical College — constable, physician, Union agent, and friend of Lincoln and Seward. He died in Washington in 1863 from a wound sustained years before the war. William's great-grandfather.
He walked away from a Virginia plantation on principle, built a frontier medical practice in Ohio from nothing, and at fifty-six picked up his squirrel rifle and marched ninety miles to help defend Cincinnati against Confederate advance. His name lives on in his grandson, Frank Nelson Stratton.
Born into the drainage ditches of Ohio's Black Swamp, William McConnell spent his youth calculating the true cost of that rich, waterlogged country. In 1878 he pointed his wagon toward the rolling hills of Noble County — and didn't look back.
A Prussian-born musician, a name reshaped by America, a short Civil War service in the 11th Indiana band, and a family echo that runs from Indianapolis music to the Stratton line.
The day an axe slipped on a hickory round in Noble County, through enlistment and the long march home. A scene-first account of one family's Civil War, told from the documents that survived it.
Jacob Gerber survived Chickamauga only to be taken to Andersonville, where nearly thirteen thousand Union soldiers died. Atlanta fell on September 2, 1864. Jacob died on September 3. His brother Elias came home and built a town.
Civil War service with the 57th Ohio Volunteer Infantry — and the promises the government failed to keep. The pension records, the wounds, the decades of waiting.
Charlotte wrote a letter to her husband George in February 1862 in her own hand. He died at Memphis nine months later. She spent the next twenty-three years signing pension documents with an X — and kept the farm, the family, and the pension going.
He served through every major battle of Grant's 1864 Overland Campaign — the Wilderness, Spotsylvania, Cold Harbor, Cedar Creek. Four hundred and twenty men in the regiment did not come home. Norman Putnam came home. Then he kept moving until the frontier ran out.
He built his first mill at sixteen, served on the Howard County Commission, and superintended the construction of the Kokomo courthouse. He was disowned by the Society of Friends as a young man and was a Spiritualist for thirty years. He later married Hester Donnellan, widow of Francis Joel Stratton.
A four-book chronicle by Eleanor Schneider Cockerline, telling the Schneider family story through historical fiction. Karen Stratton's side of the family, from the old country to the Midwest.
Pioneer, county surveyor, hardware merchant, and state legislator. He platted Omaha City at twenty-four, surveyed Noble County for seven years, ran the hardware store that supplied half the township, served in the legislature twice, and buried two brothers before their time. His sister Christiana married Isaac King, connecting the Gerber line to the Kings, McConnells, and Strattons. In the manner of John Jakes.
Self-taught attorney, state prosecutor, and nationally published short-story writer — from the sawmill to the front rank of the bar in one generation. William's grandfather.
Fifty stories for Munsey's, Argosy, Everybody's, and Collier's, written by lamplight after the boys went to sleep. He died at forty-four with a year's worth of stories still in the pipeline. A literary essay on Frank as a writer.
Collected short stories by Frank Nelson Stratton with biographical context and notes on the pulp era. The fiction itself, presented as Frank wrote it, with magazine attribution and dates.
Scanned originals of Frank Nelson Stratton's published magazine fiction — the physical pages as they appeared in print.
Frank's first son enlisted at sixteen during the fever of the Spanish-American War, shipped to the Philippines, and was garrisoned at Villasis when the Philippine-American War began in February 1899. He came home, settled in Seattle, and never discussed what the islands took from him.
A novelette based on the life of William's father — the dentist above Kenny Franks' tackle shop on Main Street, the Depression years, the second marriage, the children at Tippecanoe Lake, Banti's Syndrome, and the war that collected its bill twenty-two years after the Armistice.
A focused vignette of Sgt. Frederick N. Stratton's military service in the First World War, drawn from the Kniptash diary and service records.
Four marriages. The shunning by the Stratton family. The choices a woman makes when the world leaves her few of them — told from a son's perspective. William's mother.
Farmer, soldier, grandfather — the life of Volney William King on the Brush College Farm near Ligonier. The man who raised Billy from age two, mostly by example.
The life of Bertha Lena McConnell King, who held the King family together through decades of hardship. She outlived nearly everyone, and the farm ran because she ran it.
Farmer, carpenter, well driller, horseshoe champion, and all-around troublemaker. The youngest King — and the one who kept the farm going longest.
Jack D. McConnell of Green Township, Noble County, served as a plank owner aboard USS Knudson (APD-101), present at the landings at Okinawa on Easter Sunday 1945 and in Tokyo Bay for the Japanese surrender.
William Eugene Rhinehart of Whitley County enlisted two days before Christmas 1941 at age seventeen, served as a plank owner and Gunner's Mate Third Class aboard USS Cleveland (CL-55) through North Africa, the Solomons, Empress Augusta Bay, and the Marianas, and later aboard USS Conner (DD-582) at Brunei Bay and Balikpapan. He was Lucille Dee King's fourth husband and last.
Artist, salesman, fisherman, and the uncle who always brought the crayons. A warm portrait of a man who made every room a little more interesting.
Career Indiana State Trooper at Post 2 in Ligonier — bloodhound handler, bank courier, and the uncle who gave William's sister Marilu a home. Thirty years on the job, one county at a time.
Memories and recollections by Wm. F. Stratton — from the Brush College Farm to Navy boot camp, from Okinawa to Guam to Port Orchard. Twenty-four years of service, a marriage on Guam, and the genealogy project that started when a CD-ROM arrived in the mail.
Navy nurse, Family Nurse Practitioner, and William's wife since April 4, 1980. From Detroit to the fleet, from Guam to the Kitsap Peninsula. Two Navy careers, one life.
The library grows one piece at a time. If you have a story or a photograph to share, use the Share Your Story page.
Over 50 years of research into the Stratton, Schneider, King, and allied families—from colonial Massachusetts to Indiana and beyond. Built by Bill & Karen Stratton.
If you are tracing a Stratton line, start here. Harriet Russell Stratton's two-volume Book of Strattons is the most comprehensive Stratton genealogy ever compiled—both volumes are free and fully searchable online.