Histories

Tennessee

The Strains were from Tennessee, and seem to have been a divided family. James C. Strain is called "Col. James Strain, C.S.A." on his daughter's gravestone. But in the obituary his older brother John Higgins Strain wrote for his mother Jane Higgins, John mentions that

"When the Rebellion broke out in Tennessee, the members of the family living at the old Homestead, being opposed to secession, were despoiled of their property; and, having endured great hardships, she at length saw no other alternative before her than to leave her native state, and, though in extremely delicate health, to undertake what was at that time a difficult and perilous journey to Washington City, the residence of her eldest son, J[ohn] H[iggins] Strain, where she remained up to the day of her death."

The note is ambiguous ("the members" might be part or all of the family), but in light of the "CSA" on the gravestone, James was for secession in opposition to his mother and older brother. There are various James Strains who served for the CSA, but none match the name "James C. Strain," as recorded in the Family Bible.

If there was a rift, it seems that it was healed. James Strain's daughter Eliza Wimberly Strain lived with John Higgins Strain after her father's death, and she named her son John Lansdale, Sr. after him.