Charles Samuel Strahan, M. D. While Doctor Strahan has the distinction of having been the mayor of Galesburg, Kansas, his high standing in that community is chiefly due to his long and active practice as a physician and surgeon. Doctor Strahan fought many battles with circumstances before he was able to gain his ambition and enter upon the practice of medicine, and throughout life has been a hard worker, conscientious in all his dealings, and has thoroughly deserved every item of his success.
The Strahan family is of Scotch-Irish origin, and Doctor Strahan’s grandfather, Robert, was a native of Scotland, came to America and settled in Virginia and afterwards went across the mountains into Kentucky, and followed farming until his death in Flemming County, Kentucky. He died before Doctor Strahan was born.
The next generation of the family is represented by Samuel Strahan, who was born in Virginia in 1812. He grew to manhood in Fleming County, Kentucky, where he married. In early years he was a stock buyer, but in 1844 he removed to Randolph County along the east line of the State of Indiana and was a farmer there until his death in 1896. He was a republican voter and a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church. Samuel Strahan married Martha Hunt, who was born in Fleming County, Kentucky, in 1821 and died in Randolph County, Indiana, in 1894. She became the mother of seven children: Clement R., who died in Randolph County, Indiana, in 1913, was a tile manufacturer and also postmaster at Huntsville, Indiana, and saw active service, though a boy at the time, in the Union army during the Civil war; Russell P., is a resident of Muncie, Indiana; Basil H. is in the livery business at Parker, Indiana; the fourth in age is Dr. Charles S.; Nathan U. lives on a farm near Winchester, Indiana, and at one time held the office of sheriff of Randolph, County; Mrs. Hattie French lives in Indianapolis; James F. is a farmer near Winchester, Indiana.
Charles Samuel Strahan was born on his father’s farm in Randolph County, Indiana, October 19, 1861, and up to the age of seventeen he lived with his parents on that farm. During that time he improved the advantages afforded by the public schools. Without means to pursue his higher education, he began doing for himself, farming, working out by the month, and attending school at brief intervals every winter. That was his general experience up to the age of twenty-one. For two years he pursued the reading of medicine under Dr. H. C. Hunt at Huntsville, Indiana. After that he was able to take a term of lectures in the Indiana Eclectic Medical College at Indianapolis, and for two years he gained some knowledge useful in his subsequent work by employment in a drug store at Farmland, Indiana. In 1890 Doctor Strahan came out to Kansas, lived in the western part of the state for a time, then at Mound Valley, and in 1892 he identified himself with the community of Galesburg, where he has since practiced medicine and surgery along general lines.
Doctor Strahan owns his office building on Main Street, his home on Center Street, and also has another house in the west part of town.
As already stated he was the first mayor elected by the City of Galesburg and filled the office to the satisfaction of all concerned for four years. He was a member of the school board for fifteen years and part of the time was treasurer. He is a democrat, and is affiliated with Galesburg Lodge of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows.
On June 26, 1886, at Winchester, Indiana, he married Miss Rebecca Boyer, who is a native of West Virginia. They have a family of five children: Edna O., wife of Arthur Trammell, who is connected with the Missouri, Kansas & Texas Railway and lives at Parsons; Effie May, wife of Earl Locke, and they live on their farm 2½ miles west of Galesburg; Clay C., a rural mail carrier out of Galesburg; Lela, who was born in 1901 and now attends the high school at Thayer; and Bernice, born in 1904, and a student in the public schools of Galesburg.