Caleb Strong was born in Northampton, Mass. in 1754, the son of Caleb and Phebe (Lyman) Strong. He graduated from Harvard in 1764, was admitted to the bar in 1772 and married Sarah Hooker in 1777. Strong was on the drafting committee at the Massachusetts constitutional convention in 1779 and represented Massachusetts at the federal convention in 1787. He served in the United States Senate from 1789 to 1796, and was governor of Massachusetts from 1800 to 1808 and from 1812 to 1816. He died in Northampton in 1819.