Letter Referencing Julia Ann Strong (1824-1898)

I don't have permission to post the letter in its entirety, and I don't know if the author, Virginia Roach, is still living. Therefore, in order to respect her privacy, I will only quote a short portion of the letter that she wrote to my sister back in 1993. Virginia mentioned  Julia Ann Strong, who married Riley Britton (1814-1873). There was some discussion earlier in the letter as to how Julia could have possessed Indian blood, since her commonly accepted ancestry traces back to England. She was said to have spoken in broken English, and her daughter-in-law stated in her own application for Choctaw status, that Julia's son, Louis Cass Britton, was of Native American descent since his grandfather was Cherokee. It seems likely to me that Julia was adopted by a white family, namely the household of William Strong and Ann Binkley, sometime before her marriage to Riley, and took on their suname. She married Riley 8 Oct 1840 in Steelville, Crawford County, Missouri. The following letter gives some idea as to what Virginia thought might have happened to those who many, I think mistakenly, believe were Julia's blood parents.

Another theory, which I found online tonight, is that her mother might have died in an Indian attack. This was in a family tree page ➚ for her brother or step-father, John Albert Strong. It is also stated therein that John lived with relatives after a disastrous apprenticeship. This might help substantiate Virginia Roach's idea that the children were bound out after their father's death, and that they were very unhappy. Anyway, please read the letter below for additional possibilities concerning Julia Strong and her family.

"William died in 1842, in Crawford County and left a Will, but named no children other than saying "my children". He did name a son, Richard P. Strong, and ask that a horse be given to him, and ask that another son, John, be bound out to L. D. Thompson. Said residue of his other property be divided among his children. No wife mentioned. Will made 13 Feb. 1842. Probate on this Will began 15 Feb. 1842, so it was evidently made on his deathbed.

"William had bought on Feb 21, 1840, 109 A for $450 from Austin and Ann Clark. On May 15, 1841, he sold this land to James Smith for $300. No wife signed the Deed.

"I then found this speculation in a book, "The Strong Family", by James Rolff. "That as William did not keep this land very long, and no wife is named in the sale, nor is a wife named in any of the many estate records of the next years, although there was a wife on his 1840 Census. These facts, and that William lost money on this sale, together with a family tradition that they met a violent death on their westward move, seem to be clues that their home might have burned, that Ann died at that time, and that William died within the year from his injuries." There was another family tradition in another branch of the family, that the children were all bound out (This is partly confirmed in further probate of the estate, which makes mention of several of the sons being bound out to others) The entire estate was soon taken up with curt expenses, the executor, R. C. Dunlap, repeatedly going before the court and demanding more money for expenses. The children were very unahppy, and finally, all together, ran off to Wright County, Mo, several miles west of Crawford County. Julia and Riley britton later moved to Wright County also. The Probate drug on until during the 1848s and then was never mentioned as being settled."