Samuel Huntington

As printed in 1897

AMUEL HUNTINGTON, the second governor elected by the people of Ohio, was born at Norwich, Conn., in 1765, and graduated at Yale college in 1785. He adopted the profession of law, in 1795 married a lady of his own name, and attended strictly to the duties of his profession in the town of his birth until the year 1800, when he resolved to visit that western country which was then attracting to it so many residents of the New England states. First stopping at Youngstown, Ohio, he from there went to Marietta, where he spent the summer, and in the fall of that year returned to Norwich. The following spring, taking his wife and children in an Ohio wagon (then so called), they arrived, after weeks of toilsome travel, at Cleveland, then a settlement of doubtful name as a healthy above, as they found that many who had preceded them had vacated the cabins they had first built and had removed to the higher ground back of the town to escape the sickness so prevalent near the lake. He erected a strongly-built house, as attacks by drunken and riotous Indians were not uncommon. Mr. Huntington soon entered upon public life. Gen. Saint Clair appointed him second in command of a regiment of Trumbull county militia, and he was shortly afterward elevated to the position of presiding judge in the first court in that part of the territory. In 1802 he was a member of the constitutional convention, and by that body appointed state senator from Trumbull county, the name then borne by the territory now known as the northeastern portion of the state and which at present is divided into six counties. For some time he was speaker or president of the state senate, and by the legislature elected to a seat on the supreme bench. When Michigan was organized as a territory Judge Huntington was offered the position of judge of the district court of that territory, but this he declined, as well as other important offices which were pressed upon him. The prevailing unhealthiness of Cleveland finally induced him to remove his residence to Newburg, where he erected a grist-mill, then a very important construction and advantageous to the settlers. In 1809 he purchased a 'mill, located on the eastern shore of Grand river, between Painesville and the lake, and erected a mansion — commodious, and, for those days, rather imposing in its style of architecture. This house remains to attest by its position the good taste of him who built it. A conflict of authority arose between the legislative and judicial departments of the state while Judge Huntington was on the supreme bench. The legislature passed a law conferring certain rights upon justices of the peace which the judges of the supreme court declared to be unconstitutional. Thereupon the whole house filed articles of impeachment against the judges, but in the midst of this confusion the people of Ohio had elected Judge Huntington governor of the state. He, having resigned, was therefore not brought to trial, and it being impossible to obtain two-thirds of the legislative vote against the other two judges, they consequently escaped conviction. Nothing of particular moment occurred the term he held office, but his prominence prevented his retiring to private life. In 1812 he was, during the second war with Great Britain, a member of the Ohio legislature. The destruction of life and property by the Indians during that year was such that Gov. Huntington, having with Gen. Cass visited Washington to represent to the authorities there the condition of affairs in Ohio, was appointed district paymaster, with the rank of colonel, and returned to the camp of Gen. Harrison with a supply of funds in the shape of government drafts. He remained for many months in the army and until peace was declared, when he returned to his home, where he subsequently lived peacefully until 1817, during which year he died a comparatively young man, being but fifty-two years old. His character for strict integrity, great executive ability and accomplished scholarship was second to that of no other governor.

As printed in Centennial portrait and biographical record of the city of Dayton and of Montgomery County, Ohio, containing biographical sketches of prominent and representative citizens, together with the biographi (1897). See the original pages. Wording is the original; obvious scanning errors have been corrected, and a few may remain.