Dr. Charles Henry Strong was born near Girard, Pennsylvania. He received his education in the public schools, entering the academy at Springfield, Pennsylvania at the age of 16. He attended college at Girard, where he graduated in two years and began work as a teacher in both Erie and Crawford County, Pennsylvania. In 1849, he decided to pursue medicine and graduated from Cleveland Eclectic Medical College in 1858. He practiced medicine in Sangamon County, Illinois. He served as a second assistant surgeon for the 130^th Illinois Infantry during the Civil War. ²

He moved to Kansas in December 1865 believing he would die shortly. Within a month of exposure to the new weather and diet, however, his health drastically improved. After founding Girard, he continued to work on building the area, serving as superintendent of public instruction, clerk of the district court, deputy to county clerk, deputy to the probate judge, and deputy to the register of deeds. He also went on to start the first Sunday school in Crawford County. ²

Dr. Strong died on July 3, 1912 at the age of 84 in Girard.¹

Julius Augustus Wayland was born in 1854 in Versailles, Indiana. He was raised in extreme poverty after the death of his father, and at the age of 12 went to work for the local newspaper in Versailles. He worked or owned six different newspapers throughout the country, including one in Colorado, where he changed his political party from Republican to Socialist.¹

He began publishing The Appeal to Reason in Kansas City, MO but decided to move the paper to Girard due to a lower cost of living and cheaper publishing costs. After coming to Girard, "he had found a place to live where he really felt at home".¹ The Appeal became the most circulated newspaper in the world and earned Wayland a place in the Encyclopedia of American Reformers. ³

Wayland had been fighting cancer when federal charges were brought against him due to a reward he posted in the Appeal for the capture of the Kentucky Governor accused of murder. His trial date was finally set for November 11, 1912. He never made it to that trial, though, for he committed suicide in his home late November 10, 1912. ³

Emanuel Julius was born 1889 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to Russian immigrants. He moved to New York at the age of 17 to pursue his journalism dream. In 1915, after the Death of J.A. Wayland, he moved to Girard to continue circulation of The Appeal to Reason. Shortly before the Appeal failed in 1922, Haldeman-Julius began printing small paperback books, later to become known as Little Blue Books. These paperbacks sold for 5 cents each and soon became a gigantic publishing venture in Girard.¹ The success of Little Blue Books earned Haldeman-Julius the title of "the Henry Ford of literature". ⁴

Haldeman-Julius had once announced plans to build both a university and broadcasting station in Girard, neither of which were ever built. He was found drowned in his swimming pool in 1951, the day after his birthday. ¹