William Barstow Strong was born in Brownington, Vermont, May 16, 1837. He was the fourth son of Elijah Gridley Strong. He accompanied his parents to Beloit in 1851 and attended school in Beloit. Later he took a business course in Chicago. William assisted his father in making candles for sale while going to school. In 1852, while his brother James was agent and telegraph operator for the Milwaukee & Mississippi railroad in Beloit, William was allowed to assist starting in the railway business at age 15. The two brothers assisted each other until 1855 when William at age 18 was deemed sufficiently trained to take charge of the Janesville office of the railroad on a temporary basis. Subsequently he was transferred from one railroad post to another until he became general western agent of the Chicago & Northwestern Railroad at Council Bluffs, Iowa, in 1866.

William B. Strong’s rise in the railway business was spectacular for a school drop-out. On January 1, 1878, Strong was elected vice-president and general manager of the Atchinson, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad. In this capacity he was the first manager to authorize equipping freight cars west of the Alleghenies with air brakes. In three years Strong was elected president of the railroad with offices in Boston Massachusetts. His main interest at this time was to complete the line to Santa Fe on the Pacific coast. Making a visit to the territory of New Mexico, Strong was deterred from arriving at a decision because of restrictive legislation and a rival road, the Denver & Rio Grande. He had his railroad appropriate $20,000 for a survey, having ordered his chief engineer to run a line between Colorado and New Mexico, the only feasible road into northern New Mexico. After many vicissitudes, Santa Fe was finally reached on February 9, 1880. Strong had increased the line from 800 miles to 1300 miles and caused the demise of the old Santa Fe trail.

In March, 1881, Deming was reached and soon after this road made a connection with the Southern Pacific, which permitted him to take through shipments. In this same year the road pushed to the south, tapping the Mexican border at El Paso and connected with the Mexican Central Railroad running to Mexico City. By the end of 1887, through ownership and control, the Santa Fe operated almost 7,400 miles of railway from Chicago to San Francisco, from Denver to the Gulf of California and from Kansas to the Gulf of Mexico. Strong City and Barstow on the Santa Fe line were named for William Strong.

It was October 2, 1859 when he married Abbie J. Moore of Beloit, with the couple fostering three children. In 1889 he retired from the railroad, having won what he had envisioned, he came back to Beloit a wealthy man. He invested in Beloit real estate and farms, bought the Second National Bank and appointed his son, Fred Moore Strong, president. Three avenues in Beloit still bear his name: Woodward, Strong and Partridge. Two of the names belonged to his parents. He also built Gridley Church in honor of his father which was dedicated August 27, 1899. His estate also built the Strong building at the S.E. Corner of State and Grand streets. He died August 7, 1914 at the age of 77.