Clinton P. STRAUSS, one of the well known and substantial farmers and landowners of Jay county and proprietor of an excellent farm in Pike township, where he resides, besides lands in Wayne township, has been a resident of this county since he was a year old and has worked himself up to a position of independence by merit of his own sturdy efforts. Mr. STRAUSS was born in Berks county, Pennsylvania, April 26, 1867, son and only child of Jonathan and Mary (BERGER) STRAUSS, and was but a year old when he came to Jay county with his widowed mother, who accompanied her father Peter BERGER and family to this county in 1868, the family settling in Pike township, where Peter BERGER had bought a quarter section of land, and there establishing their home. On this farm of his grandfather, Clinton P. STRAUSS grew to manhood. He received his schooling in the neighboring schools and from the days of his boyhood was a helpful factor in the labors of developing the farm. For several years after leaving his grandfather's farm he worked as a farm .hand in the neighborhood and then bought a tract of fifteen acres, which he cleared and sold to advantage and then bought a "forty," which he proceeded to cultivate. He married when twenty-six years of age, and established his home on this "forty," a part of the place on which he is still living, and as his affairs prospered gradually added to his land holdings until now he Is the owner of a fine farm of 340 acres in Pike township and another farm of eighty acres in Wayne township, and is doing well in his operations, long having been recognized as one of the leading farmers in that neighborhood. It was in January, 1894, that Clinton P. STRAUSS was united in marriage to Mary LONG, who was born in this county, and to this union two children have been born, a son, Clarence, and a daughter. Gay, the latter of whom married Weldon IMEL, a Wayne township farmer, and has two children, a daughter, Margaret, and a son, Robert. Clarence STRAUSS married Mary BRINKERHOFF and is assisting his father in carrying on the operations of the home farm. The STRAUSS's are members of the Reformed church at Salamonia and Mr. STRAUSS is a Freemason, an Odd Fellow and a Modern Woodman. The family has a pleasant home on rural mail route No. 6 out of Portland and has ever taken an interested part in the general social activities of the community. Mrs. STRAUSS was born in Madison township and is a daughter of John S. and Armenia LONG, the former of whom also was born in this county, a member of one of the pioneer families here, and has long been engaged in farming in Madison township, where he still resides.