The drug establishment of Strong & Armstrong stands foremost in that branch of the business of Cleveland and has achieved a wide reputation, having an extensive trade not only through Northern Ohio, but in Indiana, Michigan and Pennsylvania, drawing custom away from Pittsburgh, Cincinnati and Detroit in territory previously considered naturally tributary to those places.

S. M. Strong, the leading partner of the firm, is a native Buckeye, having been born in Lorain County, Ohio, in 1833. His boyhood was spent in acquiring a good common school education, after obtaining which he became clerk in a drug store at Elyria, entering it at the age of sixteen and remaining about two years when, in 1850, he accompanied his employer, who removed to Cleveland, and remained with him there three years more.

At the end of that time, he entered Gaylord's drug store, in which he continued about two years, when he turned his attention to pushing a fever and ague remedy which he had been at work on for several years previous. Four years he devoted to this work, finding a partial success, and then he formed a partnership with A. C. Armstrong, of Medina county, for the purpose of building up a wholesale and retailing business. The business of Henderson & Punderson, which was established in 1836, was purchased, and the new firm of Strong & Armstrong opened business in the old place, No. 199 Superior street. At first the business was carried on in a limited way, the total of jobbing and retail sales for the first year amounting to but $75,000. But the partners were young, energetic, and full of hope. They pushed their trade vigorously, attended closely to the details of the business, and mingled enterprise with prudent economy so well that they were soon gratified at finding their business annually growing larger and more profitable. In less than ten years their trade has grown from about $75,000 in a year to over $600,000, and their limited establishment so enlarged as to require the services of twenty-four assistants. The business, though large, has been managed with such care and prudence as to render losses very light and litigation almost wholly unnecessary.