Charles Hamot Strong was an exemplary citizen of Erie County in his time.  He was born in 1853 to Dr. Landaff Strong and Catherine Cecilia Hamot Strong, a daughter of Pierre Simon Vincent Hamot.  He was orphaned by the age of 16 and studied law at Yale before returning to Erie to continue his studies under the honorable Frank Gunnison. 

In 1881, when St. Paul's Episcopal Church was in search of a building for a new hospital, Charles joined his surviving aunts and sister in donating their interest in the family homestead that had belonged to his grandfather, P.S.V. Hamot.  To this day, Hamot Hospital, now called Hamot Medical Center, still sits on this land and is named in honor of Pierre, whose community activism and philanthropy served as an example for generations to come. 

Charles was a charter member of the Hamot Hospital board of corporators and joined the board of managers in 1884.  He served in a very active leadership role for 55 years until his death in 1936.  He was secretary of the board for 30 years, from 1887 until 1917.  He was very instrumental in guiding the hospital’s policy and operations and generously provided financial support whenever necessary to ensure the hospital’s continued success and ability to provide high-quality and efficient care to the Erie community.  He gave land on West Second and State streets for the expansion of Hamot’s Nursing School and donated land on West Eighth Street and Greengarden Blvd. which has served as the home of the Shiners Hospital for Children every since.  He also donated the land on West Sixth Street for use by the Erie Day School.  Hamot Medical Center also continues to benefit from his philanthropy through an endowment fund. 

Charles married Annie Wainwright Scott Strong, daughter of the politician William L. Scott and granddaughter of Daniel Dobbins in 1881.  Mrs. Strong was an active member of the hospital’s first volunteer group, the Ladies Union Auxiliary Society and was the force behind the founding of Erie’s first nursing school, the Hamot Hospital Training School for Nurses, of which Charles was the charter secretary and treasurer.

Charles was very successful in the markets of coal, newspaper publishing and electricity.  His aptitude for this work was apparent immediately.  He entered the business world as a shipping clerk in a department of the Mount Hickory Iron Works.  After holding this position for only a year, he because president of the Iron Works Company.  He was president of the Union Coal Company in Shamokin, PA, and of Spring Valley Coal Company of Illinois; as well as vice president of the local W.L. Scott Co.; president of the Erie and Pittsburgh Railroad Co., Dispatch Publishing Co., Record Publishing Co., Edison Electric Light and Power Company; and founder of the Erie County Electric Co.

Charles Hamot Strong was such a strong presence and loved member of the “Hamot family,” both in genealogy and loyalty to the organization, that the Medical Center’s board of corporators continues to toast to his memory and generosity, as they have every year since his death 72 years ago.  Today, Hamot Medical Center is one of Erie’s largest employers and has brought national recognition to Erie for its excellence in several healthcare specialties, all made possible by the leadership and philanthropy characterized by Charles Hamot Strong and his family. 

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