Emily Strong (maiden name: Maxfield) was born around 1817 in New York to Joseph and Esther Maxfield. She moved to Michigan by the late 1830s and married George Strong. They had at least three children: Charles, born around 1841; Sylvester, born on October 7, 1843; and Albert, born around 1847. They moved to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, around 1850, and her husband opened a grocery store. By 1860, they owned $600 of real estate. Her husband joined the city’s police force in 1866, and they 1870, they owned $2,000 of real estate and $200 of personal property. She died in Milwaukee on December 13, 1879.