Benajah Strong

Benajah Strong was a farmer, patriot, and public official whose life connected Islip's militia, its town government, and the Thompson family of Sagtikos Manor. Born about 1748, in May 1772 he married Hannah Thompson, a sister of Isaac Thompson, which also tied him to the Woodhull family.

The town minutes put Strong inside local government just before the war: at the annual meeting of April 1775 he was elected an overseer of the highways alongside Isaac Thompson, weeks before Islip signed the Articles of Association. In February 1776, when Islip Precinct sought commissions for its own militia company, the residents chose Benajah Strong as their captain. A well-known supporter of the patriot cause, he was among those who fled to Connecticut when the British occupied Suffolk County, and he took part in several raids and missions. The British considered him a “notorious rebel.”

After the war, Strong returned to public life. In April 1787 he was the last person elected Supervisor of the Precinct of Islip, and when the State of New York recognized Islip as a Town in 1788 he continued in town office: the minute book records him as Town Clerk from 1789 through 1795, and in 1795 the meeting voted to hold the next annual town meeting at his house.