Strunk, John

Born: 1808-04-09 Schuyler County, New York

Died: 1855-07-12 Momence, Illinois

Flourished: Momence, Illinois

John Strunk was a miller and state representative. In February 1834, he married Martha W. Forbes in Cattaraugus, New York. The two eventually had three children together. In 1837, he and his family moved to Wilmington, Illinois. They relocated to Momence, Illinois in 1849, where Strunk operated a flour mill on the Kankakee River with Chatfield Todd. By 1850, he owned $5,000 in real estate. In 1854, after running as an anti-Nebraska candidate, voters elected him as Kankakee County's first representative in the Illinois General Assembly. He served in the Illinois House of Representatives until dying at his home after a brief bout of cholera.

Illustrated Historical Atlas of Kankakee County, Illinois, 1883 (Chicago: J. H. Beers, 1883), 146; U.S. Census Office, Seventh Census of the United States (1850), Momence, Will County, IL, 100; Portrait and Biographical Record of Kankakee County, Illinois (Chicago: Lake City, 1893), 602; Souvenir of Settlement and Progress of Will County, Ill. (Chicago: Historical Directory, 1884), 157; Illinois Daily Journal (Springfield), 2 January 1855, 2:3; 23 July 1855, 3:1.