HUNTINGTON, SAMUEL, JR. (4 Oct. 1765-7 June 1817), politician and Ohio's third governor, was born in Norwich, Conn., the son of Hannah (Devotion) and the Rev. Joseph Huntington. He was informally adopted by his uncle, Samuel Huntington, subsequently president of the Continental Congress and governor of Connecticut. Samuel studied at Dartmouth and Yale, graduated from Yale in 1785, and became a Connecticut lawyer, politician, and land speculator. When his stepfather died, Huntington moved in 1801 to Ohio's WESTERN RESERVE as a land agent and hotel keeper. Already politically well known, Huntington sided with the Chillicothe Republican faction at Ohio's constitutional convention, expecting to be given a U.S. Senate seat, but he was instead shunted to the chief justiceship of the Ohio Supreme Court. Frustrated, Huntington for several years tried to win appointments in new territories.

In 1808 Huntington was elected governor during a power struggle between the legislature and judiciary. He tried to remain neutral, but won only opprobrium from both sides. In 1810 Huntington lost a Senate race to Thos. Worthington. In later years, Huntington served in the assembly, leading the anti-Chillicothe Republican faction. He was an Army district paymaster in the WAR OF 1812. Huntington married his cousin, Hannah Huntington, on 20 Dec. 1791. They had 6 children: Francis, Martha, Julian, Colbert, Samuel, and Robert G. Seriously ill for years and injured in an accident, Huntington died in 1817, survived by his widow and their children. He was buried in the Evergreen Cemetery in Painesville, Ohio.

Samuel Huntington Papers, WRHS.

Related Article(s)

• POLITICS AND GOVERNMENT
• EXPLORATION AND EARLY SETTLEMENT