Benjamin Owen Strong, son of Ely and Betsey (Baldwin) Strong was born in Granville, Mass., February 25, 1832, and came to Plymouth in the autumn of 1851, when nineteen years of age. He first held the position of clerk in the Mansion House at the corner of Court and North streets, then conducted by N. M. Perry, but in May, 1852, he became a clerk in the dry goods store of Jameson & Company. On the death of Mr. Jameson in 1854, Mr. Strong assumed control of the store. He later bought out the establishment, and from that time to this has carried on the dry goods business with honor and success. He married Betsey J. Chute of Newburyport, and again, February 17, 1891, Elizabeth H. Snow of Orleans. His son, Charles Alexander, became his partner in 1884. As the Nestor of the merchants of Plymouth, I make an exception of him among the living, and award to him a special notice. The next building was erected by Wm. Sampson Bartlett in 1840, and the store on the lower floor was occupied by him as a book store until 1846, when he removed to Boston. Dr. Benjamin Hubbard has since that time occupied the tenement in the building as his home, and has also until a very recent date occupied the store as an apothecary shop. The next building was occupied from 1826 to 1832 by Isaac Sampson as a dry goods store, and the late James Cox was his assistant. Mr. Sampson was the son of Benjamin and Priscilla (Churchill) Sampson of Plymouth, and married in 1822, Elizabeth, daughter of William Sherman. The late George Sampson of the firm of Sampson and Murdock, publishers of the Boston Directory, was his son. He died May 7, 1832, forty-two years of age. After the death of Mr. Sampson the store was occupied by various tenants, among whom were Reuben Peterson, who kept a hat store, Calvin Ripley, James Barnes, Stephen Lucas and Charles H. Churchill, who preceded D. Flanzbaum, a tailor, the present occupant. A part of the store was set off as a separate room, and has been occupied at various times by Winslow S. Holmes and others. Calvin Ripley died May 1, 1874.